Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament, Dakshina Kannada, said here on Sunday that building the Ram temple in Ayodhya is his priority and remaining as an MP is secondary to that.

Addressing the Janagraha convention organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Nehru Maidan, he exuded the confidence that temple construction would start next year.

He said that he would speak in favour of building the temple as the voice of people in Parliament.

“I am a Hindu. Ram Mandir should be built at Ayodhya,” he said.

Earlier, he received a memorandum from Vishwesha Tirtha, seer of Pejawar Mutt, which demanded an Ordinance to facilitate construction of the temple.

Mr. Kateel said that he has not forgotten that it was because of his work as a Kar Sevak in the 1990s which made him MP.

All the five BJP MLAs from Dakshina Kannada participated in the convention. Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja was seen sitting along with the audience on the ground. Sullia MLA S. Angara, Bantwal MLA Rajesh Naik U., Mangaluru City South MLA D. Vedavyas Kamath, Mangaluru City North MLA Y. Bharath Shetty, Zilla Panchayat president Meenakshi Shantigodu, the former MLA N. Yogish Bhat and the former MLC Ganesh Karnik were seen sitting on chairs among the audience.