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UP assembly polls: Resentment among traders a key election issue in Ayodhya
Ayodhya is a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won all five seats in the district in the last assembly election. Ayodhya goes to polls in the fifth phase on February 27.
The majestic Ram Ki Paidi ghat on the bank of the Saryu river is the centre of attention in Ayodhya. The road from the majestic spot is lined with around 750 shops, big and small, and ends at the doorstep of the Hanuman Garhi temple.
Some shops are as old as the city itself. But with the state government planning an ambitious road-widening project, some businesses, and the livelihoods of their owners, are under threat. This fear has become a key election issue in the Uttar Pradesh town often considered the nerve centre of the Hindutva project because of the under-construction Ram Temple, and the belief that Hindu god Ram was born here.
Ram Sagar, who sells wooden slippers (khadau), fears he will be affected once the project is implemented. “As a young man, I have seen the Ram temple movement. But now, we are facing a different problem related to our livelihood. When khadaus are in demand due to the increased footfalls of tourists, the prospect of losing the shop is scary,” Sagar says.
Ayodhya is a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won all five seats in the district in the last assembly election. Ayodhya goes to polls in the fifth phase on February 27.
This time, the issues are infrastructure and local administration. But for many, the question of livelihood dominates.
Radha Krishna, 51, runs a sweets shop for the last three generations. But the premises he runs his business out of are rented. “If the shops are demolished, then their owners will get compensation. But what about us who are running rented shops?” he asks.
On the left side of the road, one can spot Monkey Tailor, an old shop that specialises in men’s clothes. Its proprietor Anurag Shukla, 37, is a worried man. Officials of the Ayodhya administration have already demarcated his shop for demolition.
“We are not against any development project. But before demolishing shops, every shopkeeper must be rehabilitated,” says Shukla.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is aware of this resentment. “I assure saints and traders of Ayodhya that no project will be executed (in Ayodhya) without their consent,” he said at the end of his road show on February 24. A few days earlier, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma tried to assure people that the state government will not execute any project without the approval of the locals.
Sensing an opportunity, former Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmaker, Tej Narain Pandey aka Pawan Pandey, has extended full support to the traders. Pandey, who had defeated the BJP’s Lallu Singh in Ayodhya in 2012 but lost in 2017 to BJP’s Ved Prakash Gupta, is the SP candidate this time, too.
