PM Modi’s statue in Pune temple disappears overnight amid objections by PMO, NCP dig

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Pune, Aug 19, 2021: A statue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a temple dedicated to him by a BJP worker in Pune, Maharashtra, has been removed overnight after strong objections were raised by the Prime Minister’s Office.

 

Mayur Munde, a 37-year-old BJP worker and a supporter of Prime Minister Modi, built this temple at a cost of Rs 1,60,000 in Pune’s Aundh. The red marble of Jaipur was used for the construction of the idol and the temple. Munde, who is associated with real estate, says, “I felt that there should be a temple for the person who built the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. So I decided to build this temple on my premises.”

In a discussion with local journalists, Munde had also mentioned that the prime minister’s moves regarding Triple Talaq, dissolution of Article 370 in Kashmir were behind the reasons for building the temple. A poem was also written on this temple about PM Modi.

After the news came in the media, the Prime Minister’s Office had raised a strong objection to the temple. When people passed by on Thursday morning, the statue of the prime minister was missing. The idol, which was removed late on Wednesday, is now kept in the house of a BJP councillor living nearby.

Municipal elections are to be held in Pune early next year. Keeping this in mind, the NCP workers had announced that they would reach the temple on Thursday morning and offer ‘bhog’ there. The statue was removed before the politics intensified on this issue.