Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and newly elected Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, after the saffron party lost in Ayodhya in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections even though the Ram Mandir was inaugurated earlier this year. Abhishek said Lord Ram came and brought justice with him.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Banerjee questioned how a party could carry out the Pran Pratishtha of a God.
He said, “This shows on what level the people's outrage is against the BJP. I don't want to comment on the margin much, but the Ram Mandir that you made an agenda and went to every citizen from Kashmir to Kanyakumari saying, ‘We made the Ram mandir and BJP did Ram's pratishtha’. How can a human carry out god's pratishtha? Can anyone do it? Do I have the capability to perform god's pratishtha? This shows that where they performed Ram Mandir's pratishtha [in Ayodhya], they lost from the same constituency. I would just say, Prabhu Ram aye toh insaaf aya.”
Banerjee won in the Diamond Harbour constituency with a big lead of 7.10 lakh votes on Tuesday.
Building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was a big emotional topic during this year's Lok Sabha elections for the BJP. However, it didn't help the party win. In fact, the BJP lost in the Faizabad constituency, where the temple town Ayodhya is located.
{{/usCountry}}Building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was a big emotional topic during this year's Lok Sabha elections for the BJP. However, it didn't help the party win. In fact, the BJP lost in the Faizabad constituency, where the temple town Ayodhya is located.
{{/usCountry}}In Faizabad, the BJP's MP, Lallu Singh, lost to Awadhesh Prasad from the Samajwadi Party. This loss showed the Samajwadi Party's move to put forward Awadhesh Prasad, a prominent Dalit leader, even in a non-reserved area. Prasad got 554,289 votes, while Singh got 499,722, making Prasad the winner by 54,567 votes. This win brought back memories of the 1989 elections when Mitrasen Yadav of the CPI won amidst the temple movement.
Read Here: What the verdict means for BJP
Following the big ceremony where Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22, the people of Faizabad voted for the first time and didn't choose the BJP. Faizabad's Lok Sabha area, known for temple politics, has always had a mix of different castes influencing the elections since the late 1980s.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP's Lok Sabha performance dropped from 62 seats to 35 seats, marking its poorest result since 2009. Overall, the BJP won 240 Lok Sabha seats, falling short of the majority mark. However, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 290 seats and is set to form the government.