Ayodhya dispute: Pressure mounting on Modi govt before polls?

On Wednesday, a powerful priest said that he would lead a group of followers to start constructing a mandir on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque, which could violate a court order and raise religious tensions in an election year.

A mob of Hindu activists levelled the Babri Mosque in 1992, sparking communal riots that killed about 2,000 people across the country. The site in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya has been the focus of a Hindu-Muslim dispute for many years.