LUCKNOW: Ayodhya has been the centrepiece of UP’s politics for long. The BJP’s politics in the state has revolved and evolved around the temple town. Incidentally, this would be the first assembly election after the commencement of the Ram Janmbhoomi temple.
Ayodhya will vote in the fifth phase on February 27. There are some very compelling reasons why the saffron party, which has thrived on Hindutva, didn’t take a leaf from the ‘kamandal’ playbook and decided not to field Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from this VIP assembly constituency, which once acted as the pivot of its poll campaign.
The writing on the wall is clear: the BJP is relying on rhetoric, as the issues in the ‘kamandal’ playbook do not have enough poll potential to alter the electoral verdict.
Development comes at a cost and the ruling BJP faces the ire of the traders because of a major road-widening project in the Temple Town which entails demolition of shops and displacement.
“Facing voters of the Ayodhya assembly seat will not be an easy task for the BJP. Ved Prakash Gupta, sitting BJP MLA from Ayodhya assembly seat, has failed to dispel fear of traders,” says Ramesh Jaiswal, president of the Ayodhya Vyapar Adhikar Manch. Agrees Congress veteran and former Member of Parliament from Faizabad, Nirmal Khatri.
“Neither polarisation, nor the Ram Mandir issue, were responsible for BJP’s victory in 2017, as much as the misgovernance of Akhilesh Yadav,” he said.
Ayodhya has been a BJP stronghold since 1991. The party won this seat for five consecutive terms from 1991 to 2007. It was only in 2012 that Samajwadi Party’s Tej Narayan Pandey alias Pawan Pandey surprised all by defeating BJP’s strongman and five-term MLA Lallu Singh on this seat by a margin of just over 5000 votes.
The BJP, of course, again managed to wrest this seat from the Samajwadi Party in the 2017 elections by defeating the SP MLA by 50440 votes. But it won’t be a cakewalk for the BJP this time. “Though Tej Narayan Pandey lost by around 50000 votes in the previous election, it was BSP’s Muslim candidate Bazmi Siddiqui who polled 39554 votes. Muslim votes in the constituency could swing the outcome,” says Arshad, a journalist with a national English daily.
“Its wishful thinking,” says BJP nominee Ved Prakash Gupta. He said the BJP has restored the ancient glory of the city and put it on the global tourist map.
RSS leaders have already made the city their hub for managing the poll strategies of the BJP and help it win maximum seats in the Awadh region.
Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in-charge of RSS, Anil, and two other senior leaders, Mukesh and Kaushal, are camping in the city. Bhaiyya Ji Joshi, former general secretary of the RSS, keeps visiting Ayodhya to review the poll management. Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar was in Ayodhya recently to oversee the poll management.
BRAHMINS DIVIDED
The assembly segment is a Brahmin dominated constituency with over 50000 Brahmins, 45000 Dalits, 40000 Yadavs, Vaishya, Kayasth and Nishad 22000 each, Muslims 28000 and Kurmi 18000. Samajwadi Party is currently eying its traditional Muslim plus Yadav votes, along with a good share of Brahmin votes, banking on its Brahmin candidate Tej Narayan Pandey.
The Brahmins, so far, look evenly divided between the SP and the BJP candidates.
