Lucknow, Jan 10 (PTI) Samajwadi Party MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh on Wednesday said he has written a letter to the Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker asking him to take all legislators to Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony on January 22.

The SP MLA from Gauriganj in Amethi said he has not yet got any response from Speaker Satish Mahana.

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"I have written a letter to the assembly speaker and requested him to take all the legislators with him to Ayodhya for the January 22 consecration ceremony," Singh, third term SP MLA from Gauriganj, Amethi, told PTI.

He said, "As the Speaker is our patron, I have made the request to him and sent a letter to his office". Singh was referring to all MLAs of UP across party lines.

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It comes at a time when his own party president Akhilesh Yadav is non-committal on going to Ayodhya for the January 22 consecration ceremony.

Asked earlier about VHP working president Alok Kumar's claim that an invitation to attend the "Pran Pratistha" event in Ayodhya has been sent to Yadav, the SP president said he does not know him and has "perhaps never met him".

"We all are followers of Lord Ram and the Speaker should take MLAs with him to Ayodhya," Singh said.

When queried what response did he get from the Speaker or his office, the SP MLA said as he is out of station, there is no response to his request so far.

About party national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya's recent controversial statements, he said the SP president (Akhilesh Yadav) has asked everyone not to speak about religious issues and focus on the cause of backwards, Dalits and the oppressed.

On Wednesday, Maurya justified the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government's order directing the police to open fire on 'Kar sevaks' in Ayodhya in 1990, saying it was done to "protect the Constitution".

Maurya was in Kasganj during the day.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)