Lucknow, June 27 -- After years of association with Ayodhya, Champat Rai, who was said to be well connected with all prominent sadhus and conversant with various aspects of the temple town, is now in troubled waters in the wake of the Ram temple donation controversy and it remains to be seen whether he can weather the storm.

Rewarded for his unwavering commitment to the Ram temple cause, he was made general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in 2020. The donation controversy surfaced six years later.

Decades before that, Champat Rai, a chemistry lecturer turned full-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, joined the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) by 1980. He became a close aide of the then VHP president Ashok...