Grand Ram temple built in Ayodhya.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
In Ramnagari, there was hope of a one-sided victory for BJP… but India Alliance candidate and SP leader Awadhesh Prasad won by fifty thousand votes in a tough contest. Despite BJP candidate Lallu Singh lagging behind in every round of counting, no one was aware of his defeat. As the brightness of the day faded into the evening, disappointment started appearing among party workers and supporters. Everyone’s tongue kept asking what was the reason? Now its answers will keep coming for many days.
Questions are arising in the minds of the policy makers of BJP that what went wrong despite giving the gift of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya after 500 years of struggle? And the defeat too came four months after the gift? The Ram Mandir movement due to which BJP established its roots in the entire country, the Ramnagari which BJP kept at the top of its agenda, the Ayodhya due to which BJP reached power not only in Uttar Pradesh but also at the Centre twice, political experts have drawn deep implications of BJP’s defeat there.
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The meaning of the reactions coming from the public is also being interpreted. BJP not only lost Ayodhya, but the party was wiped out from all the seats of Ayodhya Mandal. The implications of these results will be clearly visible in the politics of the state in the future. Let us understand the defeat of BJP in Ayodhya point by point.
These are local issues
– First of all, let’s talk about the Ayodhya assembly constituency which was the center of the Ram Mandir movement. It was expected that this time there would be bumper voting here due to the Ram Mandir, but this time the voting was nine percent less here as compared to the last Lok Sabha elections. The reason given for this was that the local voters who are BJP cadres kept away from voting. The reason behind this was displeasure with the government. Due to the widening of roads and other development works going on here for the last two years, the public suffered personal losses. Some lost their shops and some lost their houses in the demolition. Due to lack of documents, a large number of citizens did not get adequate compensation. It is said that they were not even heard. This displeasure came in the form of low voting percentage and caused damage to the BJP. On the contrary, in this assembly constituency, apart from the cadre votes of SP and Congress in favor of the India Alliance candidate, the votes of Dalits and Muslims went one-sidedly to the SP candidate. This became the basis of victory.
– Local citizens are also saying that BJP made a mistake in selecting the candidate here. Lallu Singh, who has been an MP for the last decade, has been winning in the name of Modi. Despite being an MP for such a long time, he could not create a personal image of his own in the hearts of the people. This time the people here wanted to see a high profile leader as their candidate. When Lallu’s name was announced, people did not see any excitement in the election and refrained from making him win three times in a row in the name of Prime Minister Modi. On the contrary, India Alliance bet on strong SP leader and nine-time MLA Awadhesh Prasad as an experiment. Awadhesh is said to have a good influence among his cadre voters and the general public. His way of contesting elections is so secretive that the opposition parties do not even get a clue when their vote bank has been breached. Awadhesh defeated the seasoned strategists of BJP with this strategy.
– There is also a discussion that like the India Shining era, facilities like airports are good for making the city’s name shine at the national level, but the local people have benefited little from it. Outsiders and rich tourists are able to take advantage of this facility. Ayodhya residents are still struggling for better health and education systems. There is a medical college here, but there is a lack of doctors and resources. The common voter who wanders for treatment kept a distance from the big flashy things.
-The pace of development work going on in Ayodhya for the last three years has been very slow. The problem of dug up roads, dust and waterlogging at many places has affected the employment of small traders and shopkeepers. The special thing is that due to Ayodhya being a high profile case, the officers remained autocratic. The common people were not heard. This increased the resentment towards the government.
