Akhilesh Yadav on why BJP lost Ayodhya seat: 'Pained poor for sacred work'

BJP's loss in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir stands, just months after the consecration of the temple in Ayodhya is seen as a big setback for the party this election season.

BJP's Lallu Singh lost the seat to the Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad by a margin of over 54,000 votes. BJP's Lallu Singh had been the Faizabad MP since 2014.

On Samajwadi Party's victory and BJP's loss from Faizabad, party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP would have lost even more seats in Uttar Pradesh as they snatched land of the poor and destroyed them for a sacred work.

"The truth is that the BJP would have lost even more seats in Uttar Pradesh. I thank the people of Ayodhya. You would have seen the pain of Ayodhya from time to time. They (people) were not given adequate compensation for their land, injustice was done to them, their land was not acquired at par with the market price, you snatched their land forcibly by slapping false cases against them...you destroyed the poor for a sacred woork. That is why I think people of Ayodhya and neighbouring areas voted against the BJP," Akhilesh Yadav said.

One of the major poll planks for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election was the construction of the temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya.