BJP loses in Ayodhya where Narendra Modi opened Ram temple

NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday lost the constituency where the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated of a grand Hindu temple just months ago.

The BJP looks set for heavy losses in the bellwether northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as the opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress race ahead in more than half of its 80 seats, including in Ayodhya city in the Faizabad constituency where Modi inaugurated the temple in January.

The opening of the temple dedicated to god-king Lord Ram, on a site previously contested by India’s minority Muslims, fulfilled a three-decades old BJP promise which it mentioned in almost every campaign rally during the massive two-months long vote in the Hindu-majority country.

Faizabad constituency elected Singh twice to the parliament, in 2014 and 2019, when Modi’s party swept 71 and 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.

Latest trends from the Election Commission showed the BJP’s tally trimmed to 33 seats in the state, which has drawn focus of analysts to the issues of unemployment and high inflation – two key concerns of voters that surveys showed trumped religion.

The Ram temple was constructed on orders of the Supreme Court after a bloody, decades-long dispute that in 1992 saw a Hindu crowd demolish a 16th century mosque that existed on the site, claiming it was built on the birthplace of the god-king.