The opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress are leading in more than half of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats, including Ayodhya city in the Faizabad constituency, where Modi dedicated the temple in January. The BJP is expected to suffer significant losses in this crucial northern state.
A three-decade-old BJP pledge was fulfilled with the opening of the temple dedicated to King Ram on a site that was previously challenged by Muslims. The BJP had made reference to this vow at nearly every campaign event during the country’s two-month long vote, which is predominantly Hindu.
Lallu Singh, the sitting BJP MP from Faizabad, reportedly told party workers, “I could not protect your and Ayodhya’s dignity, there must have been some shortcoming in me.” The video was published by the Indian Express daily.
“There had to be a reason why we were unable to secure victory in the Ayodhya parliamentary region.”
Singh was elected to the parliament twice by the Faizabad constituency: in 2014 and 2019, when Modi’s party won 71 and 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India.
Recent data from the Election Commission revealed that the BJP had lost seats, bringing its total to 33 in the state. This has caused observers to focus on two major factors that voters prioritized over religion: excessive inflation and unemployment.
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“While we are delighted about the temple, people were tired of the BJP,” stated Rakesh Yadav, the head of the Ayodhya Vyapar Mandal, an association of businessmen.
According to him, small business owners were upset that they had been paid less than they had anticipated for the demolition of their stores during Ayodhya’s reconstruction in preparation for the temple’s opening.
Following decades of brutal disputes that resulted in the demolition of a 16th-century mosque on the site by a Hindu crowd in 1992, the Supreme Court ordered the construction of the Ram temple.