Ending the suspense about whether Congress's top leaders would attend the Ram Mandir inauguration ceremony on January 22nd at Ram Janmabhoomi Ayodhya, the party's General Secretary of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, made it clear on Wednesday that none from Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will attend the program. Claiming that this was clearly an RSS/BJP event, Jairam in his statement said “this inauguration of incomplete temple by the BJP and RSS leaders has been brought forward for electoral gains”

This decision by Congress follows an interesting development which could have repercussions in the coming days, as Vikrmaditya Singh, the PWD Minister in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, has already made it clear that he will be attending the Ram Mandir inauguration. Singh, who is the son of the late Chief Minister of HP, Virbhadra Singh, received the invitation for the 'Pran Pratishtha' event few days ago and is, so far, the only politician from the state of Himachal Pradesh to have been invited to the program.

Vikrmaditya Singh posted about the invitation on his Facebook page on January 7th and also announced that he will attend the program in Ayodhya on January 22nd. Singh had previously mentioned that his father, late Virbhadra Singh, supported the construction of Ram Mandir and had contributed funds for it as well. Notably, Vikrmaditya Singh belongs to the royal family that ruled the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr (near Shimla), and his late father, Virbhadra Singh, served as the Raja (King) of Bushahr from 1947 until 1971 besides serving CM of HP for six terms.

RAM MANDIR AYODHYA PRAN PRATISHTHA HIMACHAL PRADESH Vikrmaditya Singh Virbhadra Singh Pratibha Singh Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu