With elections in UP Amit Shah harps on Ayodhya, Kashi and Yogi on Mathura

When elections in Uttar Pradesh are round, can the issues like Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura be far behind?

The game plans of the BJP is now clear as Union Home Minister Ait Shah during his recent meeting with the party workers of Kasi and Gorakhpur region to centre their poll campaign around Ayodhya and Kashi while in Amroha, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the cities of Mathura and Vrindavan in western Uttar Pradesh will also get a temple and the work for the same was “in progress”.

Shah was in Varanasi on Tuesday where he had a two-hour meeting with party workers while Yogi was addressing a rally in Amoroha on Wednesday when he brought up the Mathura issue.

In that rally, Yogi said: “Work on construction of Ram Temple has started, You have seen the magnificent Kashi Vishwanath Dham. If so much is happening in Ayodhya and Kashi, how can Mathura and Vrindavan be left behind,” he told the crowd and added: “In Mathura work is in progress.”

Earlier, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted that the preparations were underway for the construction of a grand temple in Mathura.

While a day earlier, Amit Shah had told the party workers of Kashi and Gorakhpur regions to keep their election campaign centred around Ayodhya and Kashi. During the meeting, the Union minister asked the leaders to prepare a list of projections of the party’s performance on each seat and start the campaign. “Kashi and Ayodhya should be kept in the centre during campaigning,” Shah told the party workers.

Thus, it is clear that BJP has plans to go to election highlighting Ayodhya and Kashi to broaden its Hindutava kinship as well as woo the voters through freebies like free ration, free electricity, toilets, and other welfare schemes.

On August 5, 2020, Prime Minister laid the foundation of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and almost a year and a half later Modi inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi weeks before the election to the crucial Uttar Pradesh province would be announced.

For BJP revival of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura are on its political agenda. In 2019 after the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the right-wing organizations like VHP raised the slogan `Yeh to abhi jhanki hai, Kashi, Mathura baaki hai’ throwing the hints loud and clear that these issues will be raked up time and again.

The opposition leader attacked Modi saying he inaugurated an incomplete project raising questions over the timing of the event. “Why PM inaugurated an incomplete project? This is an attempt to sway the people on religious lines. BJP and Modi have altered the Hindu tradition to further their political aim,” Ajay Rai, former MP from Varanasi said.

Samajwadi Party claimed that the project was initiated by Akhilesh Yadav but was hijacked by BJP.