A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat strongly pitched for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya at "the earliest", the Congress said such statements were bound to be made as elections were approaching.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, while responding to questions on the RSS's three-day lectures series that ended on Wednesday, asserted that the DNA of an organisation couldn't be changed. Asked about Bhagwat's remarks that a Ram temple in Ayodhya would end tensions between Hindus and Muslims, he said, "When elections approach, they remember the Ram mandir."