Faizabad/Ayodhya: In birthplace of Ram Lalla, BJP, SP battle for poll sweepstakes

Ayodhya: For decades a sleepy town that came into the national spotlight only in the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of 1980, the now infamous Rath Yatra taken out by BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani on October 30, 1990 to push for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the police firing on Kar Sevaks just two days after, on November 2, 1990, and the subsequent tearing down of the Babri mosque; the Faizabad/Ayodhya Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh has been thrust firmly in the arclights ahead of the fifth phase of polling for the ongoing general elections on May 20.
Polling in the city, which came to be entrenched on the global map and conscious following the 'Pran Pratishtha' or the ceremonial enthronement of Ram Lalla at his birthplace, ending a 500-year exile; is highly anticipated with the sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh pitted against Awadhesh Prasad of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
While Uttar Pradesh is considered electorally important, accounting for 80 members in the Lok Sabha, the highest of all states; all eyes will be on Faizabad/Ayodhya as it polls in the fifth phase on May 20 along with Amethi, Raebareli, Barabnki, Kesarganj and Lucknow, among other prominent constituencies.
The Faizabad/Ayodhya Lok Sabha constituency comprises five Vidhan Sabha or assembly segments--Ayodhya, Bikapur, Milkipur, Rudauli and Dariyabad (Barabanki).
In a major decision by the Yogi cabinet, a year into his maiden term as chief minister in November 2018, the state government officially renamed the Faizabad district as Ayodhya.
The BJP's Lallu Singh is eyeing a third term from Ayodhya, with the raising of the Ram Mandir on the ruins of the Babri mosque, which is already believed to have touched a chord with millions across the country, his key campaign plank. The issue that has dominated the campaign discourse for the ongoing elections has been commonly raised by the BJP heavyweights, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others.
Apart from Awadhesh Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, Sachhidanand Pandey of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also in the fray from Ayodhya.
Though a five-time BJP MLA himself, Lallu Singh is up against a formidable rival in Awadhesh Prasad, who was not elected as a state legislator from Sohawal for no less than seven terms but was also elected twice from the Milkipur assembly segment. He was also formerly a minister in Akhilesh Yadav's cabinet.
In the 2019 elections, Lallu Singh secured a fresh term from the seat as he coasted to a handsome win over his closest rival, Anand Sen Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. The BJP candidate received 529,021 votes, against 463,544 garnered by his Samajwadi rival.
Faizabad/Ayodhya recorded an impressive overall voter turnout of 61.5 per cent in the 2019 elections.
Earlier, in the 2014 general elections, Lallu Singh triumphed over Mitrasen Yadav of the Samajwadi Party by a resounding margin of 1,14,059 votes.
The BJP turned the country's most populous state into a happy hunting ground in the 2014 and 2019 national elections, winning 71 and 64 seats respectively to emerge far ahead of its rivals as the largest single party in Uttar Pradesh.
On May 6, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, flanked by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, held a mega roadshow in the temple town in favour of the party's candidate.
The roadshow, which was much-anticipated and widely televised, drew a tremendous response with locals turning up in huge numbers and lining both sides of the streets and raising lusty, full-throated chants in favour of PM Modi. The roadshow rolled out from Sugriva Fort and culminated at the Lata Mangeshkar Chowk, one of the prominent city landmarks, via the Ram Path. It took more than an hour for PM Modi's open-topped vehicle to cover this two-kilometre stretch as locals flooded the streets, cheering him and CM Yogi along.
Along the entire route, people were spotted chanting slogans in support of PM Modi and Yogi, as both leaders greeted them with broad smiles and folded hands while also waving at them occasionally.
Locals chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' (glory to Lord Ram), which has come to be associated as an electoral war cry for the BJP, as the roadshow snaked along the streets of Ayodhya. Along the route, the sound of conch shells filled the air even as women, who turned out in their best and brightest, were spotted performing 'aarti' for PM Modi and others.
Local artistes also showcased Awadh's culture through dazzling dance performances.
The visit marked PM Modi's third in six months to Ayodhya. Earlier, on December 30, last year, he gifted the city a bouquet of development projects worth thousands of crores. He was back in the city again on January 22, this year, presiding over the 'Pran Pratishtha' of Ram Lalla at his majestic abode. He performed all the rituals around the ceremonial enthronement as the 'Jajman'.
Significantly, in the Ayodhya district alone, development projects worth more than Rs 32,000 crore are under various stages of implementation presently. With the coming of a world-class railway station and an international airport named after Maharishi Valmiki, the city, while being rooted in its tradition and history, is on the way to being at par with the world's best in terms of development.
The Ayodhya dispute had been an emotive issue for decades, mired in a slew of legal suits involving Hindu and Muslim religious groups.
The Pran Pratishtha ceremony was held after the first phase of the temple's construction, made possible by a landmark Supreme Court judgement in 2019, settling the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.
The Hindu litigants argued that the Babri Mosque was constructed at the site of a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram. In 1992, the 16th-century mosque was razed by Kar Sevaks.
Earlier, in the 2019 elections, making a mockery of all poll arithmetic of the 'Bua-Bhatija' (BSP-SP) Mahagathbandhan and turning all estimates upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The SP and the BSP had to settle for a combined tally of 15 seats.