India Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Magic of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya could not woo voters, BJP is trailing
The Ram Mandir magic has not enamored the voters in UP and particularly in Ayodhya where Samajwadi Party’s Awadesh Prasad is leading on the seat by a narrow margin of 7,000 votes against BJP’s Lallu Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Ram Mandir in the holy city of Ayodhya, which falls within the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency.
However, the event did not have much impact on the voters who voted against the BJP in Ayodhya.
The Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency which is intricately linked to the temple politics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has preferred the Samajwadi Party to the BJP as per early voting trends showed as of 12 pm on Tuesday.
BJP’s Lallu Singh Trailing in Ayodhya
Early trends reveal that Samajwadi Party’s Awadesh Prasad is leading on the seat by a narrow margin of 7,000 votes and BJP’s Lallu Singh is trailing.
The BJP which had won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019 had hoped to win for the third time.
The BJP had focused its campaign on promoting Hindu cultural heritage, which is a central aspect of their election campaign, resonating strongly with supporters of Hindu nationalism.’
However, its campaign seems to have backfired and the voters have not been impressed.
The same situation has prevailed all over the largest state of India UP with 80 seats up for grabs. As per the Election Commission’s website, the SP is leading at 36 seats.
Most of the Samajwadi candidates like Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav are also comfortably leading at Kannauj and Mainpuri.
The BJP is ahead in 34 seats.
Rahul Gandhi when reports last came in was leading in Rae Bareli.
Many BJP stalwarts are trailing behind their SP opponents and this includes Smriti Irani who is trailing in Amethi.
Other prominent leaders who are trailing include Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, and Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal(S) from Mirzapur.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading in his constituency Varanasi against his nearest Congress opponent while Rajnath Singh is leading in Lucknow.
The BJP’s Arun Govil and Hema Malini are also ahead in Meerut and Mathura.
With 80 seats a below-par performance by BJP will surely dash its hope of touching the 400 mark or even equaling its 2019 tally of 303 seats.
