FILE PHOTO: A Hindu devotee prays near the Lord Ram temple after its inauguration, in Ayodhya, India, January 22, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
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. "I could not protect your and Ayodhya's dignity, there must have been some shortcoming in me," Lallu Singh, the BJP's incumbent lawmaker from Faizabad, told party workers, according to footage shared by the Indian Express daily.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.
"We are very happy with the temple but people were fed up with the BJP," said Rakesh Yadav, the chairperson of the Ayodhya Vyapar Mandal, a traders body.