Uttarakhand CM Dhami, cabinet ministers set off for Ayodhya Ram temple visit

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, along with his cabinet ministers on Tuesday departed from the Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun for Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, to visit the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple.

This is the first time that CM Dhami will be visiting the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple since the 'Pran Pratishtha' of Shri Ram Lalla, which was held on January 22.

Earlier, the Arunachal Pradesh Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu on February 6, visited the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The delegation, comprising 70 people, including cabinet ministers, MLAs, and officials, was given a guard of honour at Maharishi Valmiki Airport upon their arrival. Chief Minister Pema Khandu told ANI that he was very excited to visit the Ram temple, which had been built after 500 years.

"I am very excited to visit the Ram temple, which had been built after 500 years. I also visited Ayodhya two years ago, when the construction of the temple was going on. I had written a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath regarding the construction of Arunachal Bhawan in Ayodhya. The Ram temple is a matter of great pride for the country and it has heralded the arrival of Ramarajya and a new era of development," the CM said.

On the request of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Legislative Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana, on February 11, MLAs of all parties except the opposition Samajwadi Party attended the court of Ram Lalla. On February 12, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev paid a visit to the temple for the first time since the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony. After his visit to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said that it is not a temple of stone but of devotion and conscious sacrifice.

Taking to 'X', Sadhguru wrote, "Profound gratitude for generations of people who strived to bring this to fruition. This is not a temple of stone, but of devotion and conscious sacrifice."

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways is running more than 200 Aastha special trains from various cities and tier 1 and tier 2 towns across India to Ayodhya for the darshan of Ram Lalla in the newly-built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. As per the railways, each Aastha train comprises 20 sleeper coaches. One train can accommodate around 1,400 people.

According to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, over 20 lakh devotees visited the Ram Temple within seven days after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.