NEW DELHI, Feb 7 (UNI) The Ayodhya Jama Masjid Trust today welcomed the prime minister's visit to the temple town and urged him to solve the vexed dispute within the framework of the acquisition of certain area at Ayodhya Act 1993 to pave the way for the construction of a Shri Ram Janambhoomi temple and an Ayodhya Jama Masjid simultaneously from March 21.
Trust chairman Maulana Umair Ahmad Ilyasi and managing trustee Allama Saiyed Asghar Abbas Rizvi said in a release here that mutual understanding has been established between eminent religious personalities of both Hindu and Muslim communities.
"The solution formula has been submitted with the prime minister's office.
Subsequently, the government is seriously working for the resolution by acquiring another suitable land to build an Ayodhya Jama Masjid complex so that a Shri Ram Janambhoomi mandir can be built within the acquired area of Janambhoomi-Kot Ram Chandar at Ayodhya," they claimed.
They slammed the Congress and 'acts' of then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao and his successors HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral, saying due to their wrong policies Ayodhya has become a tangle.
Lauding the 'positive' attitude and 'spirit' of Vajpayee, the trust officials said that since the Ayodhya issue has become a national problem it has to be resolved before general elections.
They called for involving Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the peace process to avoid any political misunderstanding between the central and state governments.
Maulana Ilyasi and Allama Rizvi said the trust would hold a national Hindu Muslim unity Conference here in the second fortnight of March in which eminent religious personalities of both the communities, including the Shankaracharaya and Imams of mosques, would be invited.
The conference would focus on all the problems of Hindus and Muslims, including the Ayodhya tangle, they said.
Besides, a Hindu-Muslim Unity Forum would be established to observe any misunderstanding between the two communities as well as bringing about a timely resolution and to avoid any further 'non-sense' like Ayodhya embroglio, they added.
Mayawati pressured against having alliance with Cong: Sonia NEW DELHI, Feb 7 (UNI) Congress president Sonia Gandhi today charged that some people were putting pressure on Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati against having any truck with the Congress, but hoped her party would firm up an alliance with the BSP for the Lok Sabha elections.
"We are in touch with her (Mayawati) and are trying to work out an alliance," she said interacting with mediapersons covering the Congress at a luncheon hosted by her for them at her official residence.
Gandhi said her party would firm up alliances with the like-minded secular parties, for which talks were on.
"We have to do that as soon as possible." She, however, gave no timeframe for forging alliances.
She did not see any major problem coming in the way of an alliance with the NCP.
She said discussions were still on with the DMK on seat adjustment in Pondicherry.
In Kerala, she said the party had a problem there.
"We are a big family.
Things are slowly settling there.
There is no major problem left," she added.
Gandhi scoffed at the charge of dynastic rule being promoted by the Congress, saying this had become a 'big joke'.
She added that this was no issue at all.
There was dynastic rule in all the parties, she asserted and cited the instances of leaders whose children were in politics, like Mulayam Singh Yadav, M Karunanidhi, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Farookh Abdullah and Om Prakash Chautala among others.
The Congress president was confident that her party would do 'extremely well' in the Lok Sabha elections.
"We will fight to win," she said adding "they have accomplished nothing well to go to the elections." Her party, she said, would work to emerge as the single largest party.
Commenting on the observations made by BJP leaders on Gandhi siblings Rahul and Priyanka being fielded in politics, Gandhi dismissed the same, saying they have nothing else to talk about.
She added by saying that they were rattled and shaken up by the prospects of the two children entering politics.
About defence minister George Fernandes having been given a clean chit and the justification of the Congress in boycotting him, she asserted that he had not been cleared of all the charges.
Some contacts relating to defence deals had not been examined at all by the Phukan Commission, she said.
The luncheon, first ever to be hosted by the Congress president for journalists at her residence, was also attended by senior party leaders, including Dr Manmohan Singh, political secretary to Gandhi Ahmad Patel, AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vora and AICC general secretary Ambika Soni.
PM inaugurates railway bridge over Saryu KATRA, UTTAR PRADESH, Feb 7 (UNI) A day after the 13th Lok Sabha was dissolved, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today 'chugged off' the BJP campaign train while travelling about 16 km by a special train from here to Faizabad via Ayodhya.
"The time has come for extensive travelling as the parliamentarians will visit their constituencies in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls," said Vajpayee while inaugurating the 8.7 km-long new railway line from Katra to Ayodhya and 95-crore rail bridge on Saryu river.
"Ab Delhi hi nahin, saare desh mein awa-gaman ka silsila shuru ho jayega (not only Delhi, but a process to visit every nook and corner of the country will start)," he said in obvious reference to hectic campaigning by party leaders for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The train that carried Vajpayee comprised 12 coaches.
It was for the first time in nearly two decades that a prime minister travelled in the special presidential saloon, especially prepared and refurbished for the VVIP.
Exhorting partymen, he said now the occasion had come for all the MPs and party workers to go to their areas and tell people about the achievements of the central government during the last five years and also what needs to be done in the next five years.
"Hum doorian kam karne nikle hain (we are here to bridge the gap)," said Vajpayee.
This was incidently the first public function which the prime minister attended after the dissolution of the 13th Lok Sabha.
Significantly Kalyan Singh, who rejoined the BJP on February 3 shared the dias with Vajpayee after a gap of four years.
Railway minister Nitish Kumar, union agriculture minister Rajnath Singh, state BJP president Vinay Katiyar and MP Brijbhushan Saran Singh were also present on the occasion.
Though the event coincided with the dissolution of the House and BJP's campaign launch, Vajpayee came down heavily on government agencies for the inordinate delay in implementation of the project.
"Kaam hote to hain, par der se kyon (works are done, but why this delay)," he wondered.
He said the project inaugurated today was under completion for the last eight years.
The prime minister, however, in a lighter vein said he himself was responsible for delay in the inauguration.
Vajpayee directed completion of the project in a time-bound frame.
"We should take lesson from other countries which are always competitive while completing projects at the earliest," he added.
He further called upon the partymen not to relax till the message of developement was relayed to the people at large.
Describing his visit as an attempt to reduce distances, he said the disparity between villages and cities, between cities and districts and districts and the capital should be removed to weave India into one.
The prime minister said such projects will help link Ayodhya with the entire Eastern Uttar Pradesh, as well as provide an alternative rail route from Gorakhpur to Allahabad and Gorakhpur to Lucknow.
Railway minister Nitish Kumar chose the occasion to announce a new train from Faizabad to Delhi and extention of Patna-Indore Express train via Ayodhya.
Incidently, former prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi had also launched the Lok Sabha campaign in 1989 from Ayodhya.
PW Naxals blast Chinnakuntapalli railway station ANANTHAPUR, ANDHRA PRADESH, Feb 7 (UNI) Armed Naxalites of the outlawed People's War (PW) blasted the Chinnakuntapalli railway station on the Pakala-Dharmavaram metre guage section of the South Central railway in the early hours today.
Five armed Naxals surrounded the railway station and asked the railway staff to get out of the premises before triggering the blast.
The extent of damage was being assessed, police added.
However, the blast would not affect the movement of trains, as the Pakala-Katpadi section had been converted into broad guage and traffic had been diverted accordingly.
Hardly two metre guage trains were on the route, sources said.
Last month, suspected PW Naxalites had blasted the newly-constructed Basanpalli railway station near Puttaparti, affecting train movement on the Dharmavaram-Bangalore Broad Guage section of the SCR.
Sonia steers clear of scribes' 'mayajaal' NEW DELHI, Feb 7 (UNI) Ihe inner doors of 10, Janpath, the official residence of Sonia Gandhi, swung wide open today for a select group of newspersons as the Congress president invited them for lunch, a day before embarking upon a high-voltage campaign in the crucial Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh.
Peeling off her inscrutable enigma as a political leader, the 57-year-old Sonia treated some 100-odd journalists not only to gastronomical delights but also satiated their curiosity about the Congress' plans for 'grand alliances' to take on the larger-than-life image of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the coming general elections.
The close interaction of the widow of slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi came a day after the BJP launched its war-cry by projecting Vajpayee as its 'victory mascot'.
Clad in a yellow sari and a black overcoat, a beaming Sonia Gandhi fielded all sorts of queries ranging from a dithering BSP president Mayawati to the entry of Rahul and Priyanaka in active politics.
"Why Rahul and Priyanak are not here?," asked a journalist.
They are not members of the press," pat came the reply.
"Is Mayawati keeping you guessing?" "I feel she is being pressurised," was the one-liner reflex reply from Gandhi, who chose not to identify the forces exerting pressure on the BSP leader not to go along with the Congress.
While journalists savoured delicacies such as steaming hot kebabs, mushroom curry, chicken and vegetables, Sonia Gandhi kept them guessing as she she moved from table to table, interacting with scribes in small groups not more than ten at a table.
The reporters later mingled with each other to know what transpired at their tables.
Some revealed, some concealed.
Relishing the predicament of the reporters, the Congress president burst into laughter and said, ''hamne to aap ko jo pucha, sab bataya." (I have told you everything whatever you asked).
Escorted by her party colleagues Pranab Mukherjee, Ambika Soni, S Jaipal Reddy, Anand Sharma, Oscar Fernades and Jayanthi Natarajan, she walked to each table with a battery of cameramen following her.
Gandhi gave most of her replies in Hindi, apparently giving a signal to the media that she is comfortable in the language now.
Interestingly, it could be described as the first open lunch at her official residence for newspersons after she became the opposition leader.
Two days ago, she had hosted a lunch for opposition leaders, signalling that "progressive and secular forces" are united to take on the BJP-led NDA alliance at the hustings.
The occasion had attracted the prime minister's attention, too.
"Daur-dhoop aur baithaken ho rahi hai.
Bhojan ka ayojan ho raha hai.
Apatti ki baat nahin hai.
Lekin gair-Congressi dost ko usse samjauhta karne ko kaise tayar ho gaye jisne unki sarkarein girai thi.
Koi to kasauti honi chahiye," Vajpayee had told a BJP meeting yesterday.
(Consultations and meetings are being held.
Lunches are being hosted.
But how could non-Congress friends be willing to join hands with those who toppled their governments.
There must be some criteria).
Unfazed by the remark, Gandhi sported a confident smile and said her party was poised for a landslide victory and justified 'daur dhoop' (hectic activities) for sewing up alliances with like-minded parties.
"Samai kam hai, jaldi karna hai (time is running out and we have to hurry)," she said, adding, that "things seem to be going well." The Congress president also dished out facts about the alliances across the country, saying the roadmap to power was being imparted final touches.
Tomorrow, she is going to hit the campaign trail in the dusty environs of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, riven by rabid caste politics.
Taking a seat at each table, she freely mingled with reporters who introduced themselves before shooting questions.
For the next one hour, she replied to each and every query put by them on new alliances, poll prospects and issues to be taken before the electorate.
"Madam, why are you giving interviews to only selected ones? Please call all of us?" "I have got the message.
I will talk to all of you, she replied.
As the time for the lunch was coming to an end, she quickly picked up a plate for herself.
"Let me finish this at least before you start asking me another round of questions, she told them and occupied a chair.
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