Opposition leaders, including those from the Congress and Samajwadi Party, will soon receive the specially worshipped rice ('akshat') as an invitation to the grand inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.

According to sources, the VHP will start approaching the political outfits for the same from January 1 next year as part of a nationwide campaign that would “cut across party lines”.

VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said, “There will be no discrimination on the basis of political ideology. Every willing person, irrespective of their political affiliation, will be invited with the sacred ‘akshat'.”

VHP sources said that the organisation has been advised by seers and saints to ensure that the inauguration of Ram Temple remained a “non-political” event.

“It is a temple of Ram Bhakts, a rashtra mandir,” said a senior VHP leader.

The development has come to attain much significance days after the opposition leaders, primarily those from the Congress, questioned if Ram Temple inauguration would become a “BJP event”.

This was immediately after seers and a host of officials of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerath Kshetra met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and extended an invitation for the inauguration for the temple.

The ‘Akshat Kalash’ which were flagged off from Ayodhya on November 5 have already reached the VHP’s 45 prants, the organisational state units. From here they will be redistributed and multiplied into thousands of similar copper ‘kalash’ and sent further down the line.

The exercise, sources said, would be completed by the end of December after which the VHP and its associated groups will start reaching out to the households.

A senior VHP leader said that the kalash will reach “every village, every household”.

“In all, the campaign will cover at least 5 lakh villages and more than 60 crore people,” he said.

The VHP plans to carry out the campaign similar to the ‘Ram Janmabhoomi Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan’ of 2021 when it collected thousands of crores of funds for the construction of Ram temple.

Sources said that a special focus will be laid on reaching out to the families of Kar Sewaks who contributed their bit during the “struggle” days and the lawyers who fought the battle in the courts.

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