Broken Dreams, Shattered Hearts Made BJP Lose 'Prestigious' Ayodhya

Lucknow: Raju Nishad and Sumit at Guptar Ghat, a favourite hangout point for locals and tourists in Ayodhya, are busy with post-election result conversations with friends. They are upset as a section of people from across the country have accused them of 'Betraying Lord Ram' and defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the election from the Faizabad (Ayodhya) seat, despite the grand Ram Mandir being established under BJP’s rule. But both have not forgotten the mental trauma they went through when their houses, and shops were demolished. No fair compensation was given, and their land was not acquired at par with the market price then, nobody raised voices for them.

"Thousands of people were rendered homeless and are now living on rent and tents on the road. Our shops and houses. in which we had been living for generations, were bulldozed. Our dreams were snatched. We were happy that Ram had come but not at the cost of our livelihood and houses," an emotional Raju told NewsClick. 

Savita, 50, now runs a beauty product shop on the footpath with her ailing husband because the place where she used to sell ayurvedic medicines has now been converted into Ram Janmabhoomi Path. Her house was near Sugriva Fort, just 200 metres from Ram Janmabhoomi, but it fell under the purview of road-widening and was demolished by the authorities. She says she is still in shock and cries till late at night whenever the scene of her house being destroyed flashes before her eyes.

"Today, BJP is facing the result of the atrocities committed against people here in the name of Ram. How can anyone expect that we will still vote for a government that demolished our houses and shops, which was our only source of income? The people who are cursing the people of Ayodhya will realise our pain only when they become homeless," a distraught Savita, who did not get fair compensation for her house, told NewsClick. 

Another shopkeeper Anil Mishra, whose decade-old stationary shop was demolished during the Ram Path construction, told NewsClick said that Lallu Singh (the BJP candidate and incumbent MP) never listened to their plight, saying this is a matter for the government and he cannot help them. 

"We knocked Lallu Singh's door hundreds of times, pleading that he address our issue and ensure a fair compensation at least, but he never paid attention. Then how do we vote for them? His arrogance is also responsible for his defeat," Mishra told NewsClick. 

Over 1,100 shops and houses have been demolished on the 13-km stretch of Ram Path in Ayodhya. 

There are half-broken shops on the 13-km stretch of what is now called Ram Path—many had been running for generations by the same family. The shop owners have two complaints: first, the compensation given to them is far below the prevailing market rate and second, they worry about having to repay the loans they have taken from relatives to extend their shops after demolition. While the compensation stands at six times the circle rate, after the Supreme Court of India’s verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi Title suit in 2019, the market rate has gone up by more than 10 times the circle rate.

The incumbent Faizabad MP, Lallu Singh, of the BJP was defeated by Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Awadhesh Prasad in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad in the recent Lok Sabha elections– the constituency in which the Ram Mandir has been built. This has left many shocked, including Singh.

Singh got 499,722 votes compared with SP’s Prasad, who bagged 554,289 votes. The margin of defeat was 54,567.

Singh was previously elected to Parliament in 2014 and 2019 when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance DA bagged 71 and 62, respectively, out of the total 80 seats in UP.

This is significant because Ayodhya is part of the Faizabad constituency, and the Ram Temple was a key electoral pitch for the BJP this time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first election road show in Ayodhya after offering prayers at the Ram Temple on his first visit to the pilgrim city since the January 22 Pran Pratishtha (consecration ceremony) of Ram Lalla.

While addressing a rally, Modi appealed to voters that he wanted a 400-seat (400 paar) mandate for BJP-led NDA to ensure that Congress does not bring back Article 370 in Kashmir and put a "Babri lock" on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

According to local residents, several senior BJP leaders were allegedly involved in purchasing land in and around Ayodhya through unlawful means, whereas the government was acquiring land from farmers at throwaway prices.

The affected farmers had held several protests and demanded that when farmers of Noida and other places receive hefty amounts for their land acquired by the government for development purposes, in Ayodhya, they received only a meagre amount.

DECODING BJP’S LOSS 

SP leader Akhilesh Yadav’s new experiment of fielding a Dalit candidate in a general seat like Faizabad, where Ayodhya is located, has resulted in a major setback to BJP, the reverberations of which will be felt across Uttar Pradesh as well as the entire country, as the saffron party has invested heavily in the temple project since its inception and considers it one of its major electoral achievements.

The reason SP gave a ticket to a Pasi candidate is because the Pasi community has the largest Dalit population in Ayodhya. Prasad, a Pasi, has been a six-time MLA, minister and one of the founding members of SP. In terms of numbers, the Pasi community is considered to be the largest in Ayodhya.

On the other side, the BJP gave Lallu Singh a third chance to become an MP. Singh created controversy, when in a speech he spoke about changing the Constitution, which gave a chance to the opposition to make it a poll issue. 

Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi extensively pitched in their rallies that BJP would change the Constitution if it came back to power. They also raised issues like land acquisition, fair compensation to those houses were demolished, and jobs for youth. 

With the SP fielding a Dalit face in Faizabad, a slogan coined, 'Na Mathura, na Kashi, abki baar Awadhesh Pashi'. It is believed that not only Dalits but also Other Backward Classes or OBCs, such as Kurmis, got united behind the Dalit candidate.

The success of the SP-Congress alliance in dividing BJP's vote bank is another crucial factor in Prasad's victory. By forming an alliance, the SP and Congress effectively consolidated their support base and attracted voters who might have otherwise leaned towards BJP. The significant presence of approximately five lakh Muslim voters in the constituency, who also rallied behind the INDIA bloc, played a pivotal role in securing the win for the SP candidate.

The victory of Prasad, a Dalit candidate, highlights the support he garnered from over 2.5 lakh Pasis in the constituency, overshadowing BJP's Ram temple narrative in Ayodhya.

Meanwhile, rumours are doing the rounds that devotees visiting Ayodhya should not stay there or purchase prasadam from locals, as a “punishment” for defeating BJP.