VHP leader Pravin Togadia to contest 2019 LS polls, slams ‘anti-Hindu’ BJP

Former VHP leader Pravin Togadia said on Tuesday he was “jumping into mainstream politics” and would soon announce the name of his new party that would contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing his supporters and votaries of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya, the firebrand leader of the pro-Hindutva Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with betraying the people on the temple issue. Togadia had formed the Parishad soon after being expelled from the VHP.

"The people who swore in the name of Ram temple have managed to make a Rs 500-crore office for themselves in New Delhi, while Lord Ram continues to live under the open sky, in a tent," he said in Uttar Pradesh.

The former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader said the time has come for him to field candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to defeat the "anti-Hindu forces".

"We will contest the 2019 general elections and our entire focus would be to reclaim Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura" and change their landscape for ever, he added.

He also demanded that a law be promulgated for controlling the country's population. Once his party garners the numbers, Togadia said he would demand that the minority status given to Muslims be scrapped.

Addressing the 'sankalp rally' on the banks of the river Saryu in violation of prohibitory orders, Togadia also said that he would announce the name of his political party in New Delhi soon.

Exhorting the Hindus to join ranks with him, he asked people to trash the BJP as it had deceived them on the Ram temple promise.

"Like me, thousands have been betrayed by the BJP over the issue of construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and we will punish the BJP in the 2019 general elections," he said.