Raj wears Ram on sleeve, carries business in mind

Dust settles on campaign trail in 12 Rajasthan seats, voting tomorrow

- SHREYA JAI

On Wednesday evening, on the last day of the election campaigning on the 12 of Rajasthan's 25 Lok Sabha seats, the desert state was wrapped in the fervour of celebrating Ram Navami.

In Rajasthan, where communities and villages have traditionally had their own deities, devotees thronged Ram temples, while streets and markets in Jaipur buzzed with shobha yatras, people queuing up for food distributed at bhandaras and playing of bhajans on loudspeakers.

The city's streets were plastered with posters marking Ram Navami, mostly sponsored by sundry affiliates of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

The VHP headquarters in the city organised a shobha yatra (road show).

Some of its members this newspaper spoke with, alluded to the 'pran pratishtha' (consecration) of Rama's idol at the temple in Ayodhya, to say "Ram's time has come".