Why BJP lost Faizabad, home to Ayodhya

Thu, 06 June 2024

09:32

Nothing was more shocking for the Bharatiya Janata Party than losing the elections from Ayodhya region in Uttar Pradesh.

A part of the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, Ayodhya is where a grand Ram temple was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the site of the Babri Masjid in January 2022 following a Supreme Court order.

The BJP was banking on the Ram temple to expand its footprint and felt that after the temple became a reality UP would achieve a clean sweep winning 80 out of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats.

When the results emerged on Tuesday, June 4, the BJP won only 33 seats in UP, shocking every political pundit who predicted at least 70 seats for the party from the state.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to senior journalist Suman Gupta who has been working in the Ayodhya-Faizabad region for three decades to know why UP turned its back on the BJP, especially the Ayodhya region. Read the interview here.

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