What Happened To Faizabad, The Place Of Ayodhya Ram Mandir In Electoral Battle?(image: x.com/Chacha_huu)

Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency includes the cities of Ayodhya and Faizabad. Ayodhya has been in the centre of news for the Ram Temple, and it got inaugurated in January this year. A politically-sensitive constituency, Faizabad is currently a dominion of the BJP.

Recent Election Commission report states that Sitting MP and leader in Ram Mandir movement Lallu Singh is trailing in Faizabad by a margin of 47,935 votes. SP candidate Awadhesh Prasad is leading in the poll fray.

Awadhesh Prasad is the SP’s Dalit leader. He is currently serving as a legislator from the Milkipur assembly segment. Awadhesh Prasad has reached the assembly a total of nine times from the Sohawal and Milkipur assembly constituencies of Ayodhya. By fielding a Dalit candidate in Faizabad, the SP hopes to gain an advantage over the BJP.

Lallu Singh was one of the prominent figures of the Ram Mandir movement and also among the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A politically-sensitive constituency, Faizabad was a dominion of the BJP. But, in the beginning, since the first election in 1957, the constituency has been held by the Congress. As the Ram Mandir Movement held great sway in the public and political arena, in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won the seat for the first time. The BJP”s Vinay Katiyar was the MP from 1991 to 1996. Following the 1998 elections, the SP”s Mitrasen Yadav won the seat. However, in 1999, Vinay Katiyar retrieved the seat for the BJP.

Since the Ram Mandir slowly began to lose significance after 1999, the BJP”s next victory over the seat came only in 2014. In 2004, BSP”s Mitrasen Yadav and Congress” Nirmal Khatri won the seats, respectively. The Modi wave in 2014 brought the BJP”s comeback to Faizabad and Lallu Singh”s victory. In the 2019 elections, Lallu Singh repeated his victory at Faizabad by defeating SP candidate Ananad Sen Yadav by a margin of 65,477 votes.