Hindu Mahasabha to contest UP polls on Ram temple plank

AGRA: The

Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha

(ABHM) has decided to contest all the 403 assembly seats in UP in the ensuing elections in 2017, with construction of the

Ram temple in Ayodhya

as its main agenda.

Talking to TOI,

Ashok Kumar Pandey

, Mahasabha spokesperson, said, "Due to the ban, the party hasn’t contested any election since 1990, except last year’s Bihar assembly elections. We contested for 53 seats but did not win any."

"We will be contesting

UP assembly elections

on all the seats and our main aim is to fight

Muslim appeasement

and ‘goondaraj’ prevailing in UP. The party’s main poll plank would be construction of Ram temple, besides enacting laws for cow protection and implementation of two-child norm in the country," Pandey said, adding that the organization will shortly announce candidates and will look into possibility of alliances with “like-minded” parties like the Hindu Yuva Vahini.

Mahasabha’s national secretary, Pooja Shakun Pandey, criticized the Modi government at the Centre for letting Hindus down. "They have not done anything for the community and even failed to build the Ram temple that propelled BJP to the national political scene," she alleged.