BJP set to lose in Faizabad as Ram Mandir fails to resonate with voters

According to political observers, the BJP’s failure to strike the right Kamandal-Mandal balance was a crucial factor that impacted their chances of victory

The ‘Ram Mandir’ factor did not favour the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its two-time sitting MP Lallu Singh is set to face defeat at the hands of Samajwadi Party’s Awadhesh Prasad in Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Ayodhya.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav with party candidate from Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency Awadhesh Prasad during the election campaign rally in Ayodhya. (Photo from X)

Prasad, an old party leader and MLA from the Milkipur assembly seat, is leading by a significant margin.

His political journey began in 1977 when he won his first assembly election from the Sohawal assembly seat in Ayodhya. Thereafter, he won assembly polls in 1985, 1989, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2007, and 2012.

After losing to BJP candidate Gorakhnath Baba in the Milkipur assembly poll in 2017, Prasad once again emerged victorious in the 2022 elections as the Samajwadi Party candidate from the same seat, defeating the BJP candidate.

SP’s experiment with a Dalit candidate in a non-reserved seat proved successful, according to Prashant Trivedi, associate professor at the Giri Institute of Development Studies.

This was the first time the people of Faizabad voted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 this year.

The Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, the geographical centre of Kamandal or temple politics, has consistently witnessed an undercurrent of caste dynamics since the late 1980s.

According to political observers, the BJP’s failure to strike the right Kamandal-Mandal balance was a crucial factor that impacted their chances of victory.