Maha CM Shinde flags off special train to Ayodhya, to visit UP temple town on April 9

PTI, Apr 7, 2023, 7:04 PM IST

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday flagged off a special train to Ayodhya carrying activists of his party Shiv Sena amid fanfare, two days ahead of his own visit to the temple town in Uttar Pradesh.

Sporting a traditional saffron shawl, Shinde, accompanied by his son, Kalyan Lok Sabha MP Srikant Shinde, Kalyan unit in-charge of the Shiv Sena Gopal Landge, local leaders and hundreds of party activists, showed the green flag to the train at Thane station around 4.40 pm amidst slogans of Jai Shri Ram.

Shiv Sainiks travelling by the special train, which was well decorated with a ‘Chalo Ayodhya’ board mounted in the front, will welcome their leader when he lands in the town on Sunday.

Amid blowing of trumpets and music bands playing, the CM walked the entire stretch of the platform No. 5 accompanied by hundreds of Shiv Sainiks carrying saffron flags with pictures of Lord Ram and the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ poll symbol printed on them. They also displayed placards bearing pictures of Shiv Sena founder the late Bal Thackeray.

Shinde carried the flags and placards for some distance, and entered train bogies and greeted passengers on their way to Ayodhya.

The chief minister will leave for Lucknow on April 8 evening and visit Ayodhya the next day and perform ‘aarti’ on the banks of the Saryu river, according to an itinerary circulated among media persons.

“I will visit Ayodhya on April 9 with my party ministers, MLAs, MPs and other functionaries,” Shinde said on Sunday last.

The Shiv Sena has released a teaser on social media with regards to Shinde’s visit to Ayodhya, his first after becoming chief minister on June 30, 2022, and a short video on his life.

Former Thane Mayor and Sena spokesman Naresh Mhaske along with some other leaders are camping in the temple town to oversee arrangements for Shinde’s visit, which is being seen as a mega show of strength by his party, which remains locked in a bitter battle for supremacy with the rival Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

Shinde’s trip to Ayodhya, where a grand Ram temple is coming up, will be closely watched in political circles in Maharashtra as he seeks to establish himself as the true inheritor of Bal Thackeray’s legacy and reaffirms his Hindutva credentials. The veteran politician was in the sacred city in June 2022 to make arrangements for then-Cabinet minister Aaditya Thacekray’s visit, and the trip came just days ahead of his rebellion against the leadership of the undivided Shiv Sena.