Lucknow: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Wednesday told Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath that he had succeeded in bringing around some Muslim leaders into backing a Ram temple at the disputed site, a government source said.

Ravi Shankar met the chief minister in Lucknow, a day after the BJP leader had praised his efforts to negotiate a solution to the Ayodhya dispute.

"Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told the CM that while a debate was on whether there should be a Ram temple or a masjid at the disputed site, he has created an atmosphere where even many Muslim leaders have been advocating a Ram temple," the government source said.

Neither Ravi Shankar nor Adityanath was available to corroborate the version of the government source.

The source added that the plan appeared to be to make an attempt to marginalise the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, one of the parties to the dispute pending before the Supreme Court.

"We can put the Sunni board in the periphery or force them to come to the table," an official quoted the founder of the Art of Living Foundation as saying at the meeting with Adityanath at the chief minister's residence.

Ravi Shankar is not connected with the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid suit but had recently offered to play mediator, an initiative Adityanath had welcomed when the chief minister visited Ayodhya on Tuesday.

On Monday, Waseem Rizvi, the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board who has been playing the role of Ravi Shankar's emissary, had visited the temple town and declared that a Ram temple should be built at the site.

Rizvi had also said the Shia board would sponsor the construction of a mosque at any place outside Faizadabd, the district where Ayodhya is located.

Rizvi has been trying to curry favour with the BJP since the Adityanath government ordered a probe three months ago into allegations of his involvement in the illegal sale of the board's properties.

Zafaryab Jilani, the counsel for the Babri Masjid Action Committee that provides legal assistance to the Sunni board in the case, said: "Some representatives of Ravi Shankar had contacted us for talks with him. We can meet him but we cannot discuss the Babri issue with an outsider in the case."

"We don't want to talk to anybody who is unnecessarily getting involved," said Sunni board chairman Zufar Farooqui.

Amar Nath Mishra, president of the Brahman Mahasabha at whose residence the spiritual guru met some maulanas on Wednesday, said: "Even the Supreme Court wants an out-of-court settlement."