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Blunting the BJP’s Hindutva Card: Why Akhilesh Yadav is Finally Visiting the Ram Temple in Ayodhya

By Omar Rashid

By visiting Ram Mandir next month, Yadav is taking the fight directly to the BJP’s backyard.

New Delhi: After consciously avoiding it for nearly three years, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to visit the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya along with his family on December 12. Prior to that, he is scheduled to inaugurate the Kedareshwar Temple, a replica of the Kedarnath shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva, in his native district of Etawah.

Viewed together, these two events are poised to shape the image Yadav intends to strategically project ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election: that of a leader willing to engage directly with Hindu sentiment while blunting the last remaining weapon in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) political quiver.

The Ayodhya and Ram Temple issues have long hung heavily over Yadav’s head. Yadav’s decisions to build a temple and schedule a visit to Ayodhya are expected to draw accusations of “soft Hindutva.” Political rivals attempting to court Muslim voters in the state will likely leverage the move to question his commitment to secularism, particularly given that the Ram Mandir was constructed on the site of the demolished 400-year-old Babri Masjid and has been a sore point for Muslims.

However, the two upcoming events are also being seen as a strategic push by Yadav to soften his image among the Hindu electorate – who make up four-fifths of the state’s population – and strip the BJP of one of its most potent weapons against him and his party.

The history of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the trajectory of the Samajwadi Party have been tightly intertwined for decades. In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Vishva Hindu Parishad-BJP combine reshaped Indian politics through mass Hindu mobilisation centered on the Ram Temple. For years, the BJP has routinely and aggressively invoked the 1990 police firing on ‘kar sevaks’, ordered under the government of Yadav’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, when majoritarian activists attempted to storm the Babri Masjid.

Even after coming to power in Lucknow and New Delhi, the BJP has tried to keep the wounds sore to remind the younger voters of the turbulent politics of the 1990s and brand the Samajwadi Party as anti-Hindu.

The Ayodhya issue has dominated virtually every state and national election in some form, particularly following Narendra Modi’s rise to power.

When the Supreme Court eventually awarded the land where the Babri Masjid stood for four centuries to the Hindu litigants for the construction of the Ram Temple, Modi stepped in to claim political credit, presiding over both the bhoomi pujan (groundbreaking ceremony) and the high-profile consecration (pran pratishtha).

All this happened just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. However, the events over the last two years have totally pushed the BJP on the defensive.

Beyond constructing a grand Ram temple – a core pledge of the BJP – the party’s ‘double-engine’ government has poured over Rs 40,000 crore into massive infrastructure and redevelopment projects across Ayodhya. However, widespread anger over inadequate compensation for those whose land was acquired, combined with damaging allegations of financial mismanagement and chanda chori (donation theft), has pushed the ruling party to the back foot.

Add to it the embarrassing defeat the party suffered in the Faizabad Lok Sabha, which encompasses Ayodhya, in the 2024 election.

That Yadav would visit the Ram Temple was announced to the media by former minister Pawan Pandey, the Samajwadi Party’s ‘face’ in Ayodhya and its candidate for the Ayodhya Assembly seat. Pandey, who led the charge against the BJP over the chanda chori allegations, said that Yadav would offer prayers at the Hanumangarhi Temple before seeking blessings at the Ram Mandir for a formal darshan of Ram Lalla.

Speaking to reporters in Etawah on Diwali, November 8, 2026, Yadav confirmed that his Ayodhya visit would follow the inauguration of the Kedareshwar Temple. He said that while in Ayodhya, he would appeal to the electorate to give the BJP a “big zero” in the upcoming polls. In other words, to ensure that the BJP loses all five seats in Ayodhya district.

The BJP is almost certain to project Yadav’s visit as a validation of its Hindutva ideology. It will argue that even secular leaders are now forced to embrace Hindu symbols and visit temples. Yet, from Akhilesh Yadav’s perspective, a planned visit just ahead of the election remains far easier to defend than enduring the BJP’s continuous attacks over his three-year absence from the temple.

Entering the 2027 election carrying the burden of the accusation that he is avoiding the temple could help the BJP distract voters from his core campaign promises – social justice and economic welfare. By visiting Ayodhya, Yadav aims to disarm the BJP of its primary weapon for questioning his faith and Hindu credentials.

While this move carries the calculated risk of playing on the BJP’s preferred ideological turf, it is unlikely to alienate the Muslim electorate. As recent voting patterns demonstrate, Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh have largely embraced political pragmatism under the BJP rule, recognising the state’s shifting political landscape and viewing the Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc as the sole viable forum to challenge the BJP.

With the shrinking of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), there is hardly any major political party left in Uttar Pradesh that could look to cash in on any possible Muslim disenchantment or challenge the Samajwadi Party-Congress party combine as the main contender against the BJP.

Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM remains an untested and unpredictable force in many pockets, especially western Uttar Pradesh. It is unlikely to have any large-scale impact on the Opposition’s prospects due to its limited appeal.

The Ram Temple, and Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to avoid visiting it, have long acted as an unresolved vulnerability for the former chief minister. Over the past roughly four decades, the BJP has repeatedly used the 1990 firing incident to corner the Samajwadi Party and its leadership as “anti-Hindu,” and accused it of “Muslim appeasement” and neglecting majority sentiment.

In 2013, during Yadav’s tenure as chief minister, the VHP attempted to launch an unauthorised 84-Kosi Parikrama Yatra through Ayodhya, heightening communal tensions ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Akhilesh’s heavy administrative response, enforcing a ban and deploying a heavy security cordon, was weaponised by the BJP to label him as “anti-Ram”, apart from “anti-Hindu.”

Focusing on Ayodhya and the Ram Temple is undoubtedly a delicate gamble that risks playing into the hands of the BJP, which thrives on communal polarisation. Besides, any discussion centered on Ayodhya tends to reinforce its core narrative of Hindutva cultural nationalism. However, the BJP has rarely found itself as politically vulnerable in Ayodhya as it is today.

Political developments since 2024 have, in fact, allowed the Samajwadi Party to shift gears to the offensive, making it the perfect setting for Akhilesh Yadav to finally visit the temple.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, the BJP placed the Ram Temple at the centre of its messaging to woo Hindus and communally polarise the voters. The party openly sought votes as a reward for constructing the shrine, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath repeatedly declaring at rallies: “Jo Ram ko laye hain, hum unko layenge” (We will bring back to power those who brought Lord Ram).

The BJP, at the same time, also demonised Opposition leaders – particularly the top leadership of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress – for declining invitations to the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony. Adityanath framed the election as an existential battle between “Ram bhakts and Ram drohis” (devotees of Ram versus betrayers of Ram), asserting that “only a Ram bhakt will rule India” and warning that victory for Ram’s opponents would be akin to worshipping Ravana, Kumbhakaran, Meghnad and Marich.

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In February 2024, the Uttar Pradesh government introduced a formal resolution in the state Assembly congratulating Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Adityanath for scripting “history” by consecrating the idol of Lord Ram after a “500-year wait”.

A dozen–odd Samajwadi MLAs objected to the motion. When Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana invited all House members to join a collective trip to the temple, Akhilesh Yadav rejected the invitation, declaring that he would visit Ayodhya only upon the call of Lord Ram, rather than at the behest of the Speaker. This was seen as an evasive and defensive response.

Over time, however, Yadav has made a deliberate effort to counter the BJP’s narrative and recast his public image as more flexible regarding Hindu symbolism. While retaining his core PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak – Backwards classes, Dalits and Minorities) narrative in rhetoric, ticket distribution and party organisation, Yadav’s most likely calculation is that a formal temple visit will effectively silence his detractors.

It would also be a statement in the direction of him acknowledging the Ram Mandir for what it is today: a place of worship for millions of Hindus and a major tourism pull, rather than completely surrendering it to the BJP for its communal politics and Hindu mobilisation.

Indeed, by calling for a boycott of contentious preacher Dhirendra Krishna Shastri over his controversial remarks on the Hindu god Krishna, constructing a massive Shiva temple spread across 10 acres in Etawah and scheduling a Ram Mandir visit after publicly raising allegations of financial misappropriation at the site, Yadav is aligning himself with the three major deities of the Hindu pantheon.

This also allows him to establish a symbolic connection with Uttar Pradesh’s primary Hindu cultural and spiritual centres: Mathura, Ayodhya and Varanasi.

Over time, Yadav has increasingly adopted language that resonates with the Hindu masses. He has made frequent public appearances alongside prominent Hindu seers, visited major temples and openly defended Shankaracharya Swami Avimukhteshwaranand against administrative actions by the Adityanath government. Recently, Akhilesh even linked his PDA narrative to Ram and asserted that “Socialism is, in essence, ‘Ram Rajya,’ and ‘Ram Rajya’ is socialism.”

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party MPs Akhilesh Yadav, Awadhesh Prasad and other opposition MPs in a protest seeking a response from the government on police action on student demonstrators and alleged theft of Ayodhya’s Ram temple donations during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Tuesday, August 11, 2026. Photo: PTI/Ravi Choudhary.

“Those who believe in both are the true Sanatanis. Together, we must strengthen the resolve of the PDA and work toward establishing a rule of social justice – a vision embodied in the path of ‘Ram Rajya’ once shown by Lord Shri Ram,” he said.

Speaking in Etawah on Diwali, Yadav asked when Adityanath planned to establish accountability for chanda chori. “They claimed they would get to the bottom of the chanda chori – that everything would be ‘doodh ka doodh, pani ka pani’ [the truth would be laid bare]. But when will that actually happen, if it happens at all?” Yadav asked.

Following Yadav’s announcement, the BJP has reacted on expected lines, framing his scheduled visit as political opportunism and a triumph of its own ideological stance.

Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said, “Members of the Samajwadi Party never used to discuss the temple of Lord Ram Lalla. Such is the grandeur and vastness of Sanatan culture that even those who are opposed to it in their hearts and actions now realise that if they wish to secure votes, they must seek refuge in Lord Ram.”

State Culture Minister Jaiveer Singh similarly dismissed the visit as “politically motivated,” directly linking it to the upcoming Assembly polls.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, speaking during his Diwali address in Ayodhya, claimed the move represented an “ideological victory” for the BJP, stating that those who once denied Ram’s existence, neglected Ayodhya, and “stained the streets of Ayodhya with blood” were now forced to bow before the deity.

Referring directly to Yadav’s announcement, Adityanath said, “Those who had insulted and humiliated devotees, who fired bullets on karsevaks and who lathi-charged saints – if they come to Ayodhya, they must come only after seeking forgiveness. Seek forgiveness from the devotees of Ram, seek forgiveness from the saints. Repent your past actions.”

Despite the BJP’s rhetoric, the 1990 firing on kar sevaks does not have the same resonance with voters as it once did. Decades have passed, and the Samajwadi Party has governed Uttar Pradesh three times since, securing an absolute majority in 2012 that allowed Akhilesh Yadav to complete a full five-year term as chief minister.

Even in 2024, at the height of the BJP’s campaign following the Ram Mandir inauguration, the Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc dealt a major blow to the ruling party, winning 43 seats across Uttar Pradesh. In fact, the BJP lost all five Lok Sabha seats encompassing Faizabad division: Sultanpur, Ayodhya (Faizabad), Ambedkar Nagar, Amethi and Barabanki.

Recent elections for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council have boosted Yadav’s confidence. The BJP lost both seats in the Varanasi division, barely held the Gorakhpur-Faizabad constituency amid serious allegations of voter manipulation and conceded ground in the Agra division (which includes Mathura). These outcomes suggest that the BJP’s Ayodhya-centric Hindutva may no longer be yielding the electoral dividends it once did.

By visiting Ram Mandir next month, Yadav is taking the fight directly to the BJP’s backyard.

Omar Rashid is an independent journalist.