From 1986 onwards, when he was appointed general secretary of the VHP, until his death in 2015, Ashok Singhal was undoubtedly the face of the Ayodhya agitation. Although it was L.K. Advani who had kick started the famous Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra in 1990, and propelled the BJP from near-oblivion to prominence, it was Ashok Singhal who had worked tirelessly to ready the ground which eventually resulted in the Ram temple agitation evolving into a political launch pad for the BJP and its principal Hindutva ideology.
