The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will begin its 39-day ‘Ram Rajya Rath Yatra’ from Ayodhya to Rameswaram on Tuesday. The yatra, which will pass through six states, will culminate on March 23.

The preparations for the yatra are being organised by two ‘BJP’s ideological mentor RSS affiliates’, – the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Muslim Rashtriya Manch. The yatra is expected to be flagged off by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The rath – a converted Tata mini truck — would travel through BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra as well as Karnataka, where the party is hoping to wrest power from the Congress in this year’s assembly elections. The last stretch of journey will be through Kerala, where the BJP is trying to expand its footprint.

The campaign for a Ram temple at Ayodhya, started in the 1990s by LK Advani, helped the BJP become a major political force in the country. Over the last few years the matter had been pushed to the back pages of the BJP manifesto, even for the last year’s assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The rath yatra comes days before the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit is expected to come up before the apex court for the final hearing. Nearly 2,000 people had been killed following the demolition of the Babri masjid in December 1992. The thousands of right-wing activists who razed the mosque, said it had been built on a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram.