The Land Lost: Faizabad Rejects BJP's Ram Mandir Politics

The BJP losing the Faizabad constituency, which houses the much fabled Ram mandir, has an ironic quality to it. The saffron party gave Ram Lalla a home but바카라�demolishing homes and shops바카라�exiled its long-term residents. It invited the world to Ayodhya but snubbed the locals. The BJP바카라�s Lallu Singh, as a result, lost the seat to Samajwadi Party바카라�s Awadhesh Prasad, a Dalit, by around 55,000 votes. Even today, many Dalits are forbidden to enter temples, but Prasad has zipped into the temple town of the country. This victory carries one바카라�or all바카라�of the following imprints: plot twist, poetic justice, political boomerang. Now not the people of Ayodhya, but the BJP has been exiled. And they바카라�ve sent a charged message to the ruling party: that in a democracy, the real gods are the voters themselves.

Earlier this year, just two weeks before the Ram mandir consecration, discontent ran rampant among the locals. Here바카라�s what I heard from a disparate group: 바카라�There바카라�s been no change here, except the Ram Mandir바카라�the change inside is 0.0바카라�; 바카라�Ek toh shraap hai Sita-ji ka, aur doosra is sarkar ka [once Sita-ji cursed the people of Ayodhya; now it바카라�s this government]바카라�; 바카라�it바카라�s like someone made Ayodhya drape a jacket of gold but snatched its soul.바카라�

Stoking the fire of lopsided and restricted 바카라�development바카라�, the BJP바카라�s Singh made a remarkable comment in early April: that the party needed a two-third majority in the Parliament to 바카라�make a new Constitution바카라�. The short video went viral, and it left many worried and miffed. Singh had perhaps forgotten that a substantial number of Dalits lived in his own constituency. An attack on the Constitution, for them, meant an attack on their very lives: the removal of reservations in jobs, education, and politics. It also meant an attack on the architect of the Constitution, their God-like idol, Babasaheb Ambedkar. And in a classic case of 바카라�facts being stranger than fiction바카라�, Singh바카라�s faux pas came on April 13, a day before the바카라� Ambedkar Jayanti.

The INDIA bloc latched on to this opportunity, highlighting the comment in election campaigns, then pointing to its own slogan: 바카라�PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpasankhyak)바카라�바카라�the backward, Dalit, and minority. And besides hammering the ruling party on various issues바카라�such as unemployment, inflation, farmer distress, and paper leaks바카라�Akhilesh Yadav got the caste-religion equation bang-on in Faizabad (much like he did in the rest of Uttar Pradesh). In a constituency comprising around 15 per cent Muslims, 22 per cent Other Backward Castes, and 23 per cent Dalits (with Pasis the most dominant sub-group), the INDIA alliance fielded a Pasi candidate, Prasad.

The loss in Ayodhya바카라�and Uttar Pradesh바카라�also poses major ideological questions for the BJP, as it means that the Hindutva clarion call doesn바카라�t have the same pull as it once did. Not too surprising. After all, according to an old famous proverb, 바카라�Bhookhe pet bhajan na hoi, gopala [empty stomachs don바카라�t allow for hymns, Krishna].바카라�