Ram temple
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 3: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears on course to form governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The BJP also appears inching to the half way mark in Chhattisgarh where the party was earlier seen to have been out of contest. The verdict truly comes out to be a huge endorsement for the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Six months after the drubbing in Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP’s victory in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is being explained as a thanksgiving vote by the people for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The BJP had played the Ram Temple card hard on the campaign trails in the Assembly elections with the inauguration date was timed at the peak of the electioneering.
The BJP had painted the skyline in the poll-bound states with huge hoardings of the Ram Temple with Prime Minister Narendra Modi occupying a place of eminence. The affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) worked hard on the ground to amplify the Ram Temple template of the BJP.
It may be recalled that Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisharh have deep ties with the Ram Janmabhomi movement. The BJP had come to power in the united Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with the Ram Janmabhomi movement led by the then party president LK Advani. After the Congress government at the Centre led by the then Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao had dissolved the Assemblies in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after the demolition of Babri Mosque in 1992, the two states had strongly supported the BJP a year later. In 1993, the BJP returned to power in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with bigger mandates as the people gave mandates to the party on the Ram Temple poll plank.
Now that the BJP is gaining power in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the political observers believe that the party was able to exploit the Ram Temple construction issue in the Assembly elections. The RSS affiliates have been building up the Ram Temple poll plank for a while with multiple programmes being carried out since September this year which have been planned to last till the end of March next year with a clear aim to maximize the gains for the Lok Sabha elections.
Modi will be taking part in the Ram Temple inauguration in January 22 next year. The BJP is warming up to the Ram temple as a poll plank in a big way for the elections. The party is seen asking the people to vote for the party for having built the Ram Temple.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigned extensively in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. Adityanath made it particular to tell the people that the Ram Temple is finally being inaugurated. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also amplified the strategy of the BJP that the Congress had been a roadblock in the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Congress may have committed a mistake for having gone to the Election Commission to complain against the BJP for putting up the Ram Temple hoardings in the states. The BJP used the evident mistake of the Congress to further amplify the allegations that the Rahul Gandhi led party was against the construction of the Ram Temple.
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