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ILess than six months ago, Narendra Modi paraded through the ornate grounds of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its most politically decisive. His appearance in the holy city to inaugurate the newly built Hindu temple, built on the ruins of a mosque demolished two decades earlier, was touted as the pinnacle of the prime minister’s decade in power—the crowning glory of his Hindu nationalist agenda and his ticket to a third term in power. The ceremony is believed to mark the unofficial launch of his election campaign.
But on Tuesday night, Modi faced a rude awakening. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled India with an iron grip for a decade, lost its majority as a party and will have to rely on coalition partners to return to government. The losses were particularly heavy in Uttar Pradesh, long considered a BJP stronghold – and nowhere more so than in Ayodhya.
Subsequently, few could have believed that Ayodhya, the city that has become so closely associated with Modi’s agenda, could reject the prime minister’s party.
Yet the frustrations that led to the BJP’s loss of the Faizabad seat were echoed across the state: religious polarization and pride in the Ram temple ultimately did not trump anger at rampant unemployment, stagnant wages and rampant inflation. “Bhookai piat Bhajan nahi hota [Prayers are not offered by those with hungry stomachs]”, became an oft-heard refrain.
Many people also expressed anger at the party’s heavy-handed approach to India’s institutions, including the media, which presented an almost uniformly pro-government narrative during the election.
Among those in Ayodhya who voted against the BJP was Azan Ahmad Khan, 36, who runs a clothing business. He was “fed up with the dictatorial attitude of the Modi government”, he said, and like most people in the city voted for the Samajwadi Party, a regional party that is part of the opposition INDIA coalition.
“This government has failed to provide jobs or uplift the poor. Instead, they started talking about changing the constitution,” Khan said. “Before that I was not very active in political matters. But the way Modi is polarizing society, people like me are worried about the future.
Khan was not alone. While the newly built Ram temple was a source of pride for many in Ayodhya, there was also a prevailing feeling that it was “for outsiders” and many complained that religion was no substitute for the failures of governance and job creation for the people living there.
“Building the Ram temple will not help me get a job. What will I do with the temple without work?” said Raj Yadav, 29, who runs a cosmetics shop in Ayodhya. He was disappointed that the BJP had not tackled unemployment and inflation and said recruitment was a “complete mess”. “The BJP does not have any vision for the actual development of the country,” he said.
Yadav was among those who said comments made by the local BJP candidate during the campaign that the party wanted a large majority to rewrite India’s constitution had alienated many. The state of Uttar Pradesh is home to many lower caste communities who have come to fear widely that rewriting the constitution would mean removing their enshrined protections.
“People, especially those from the lower castes, were shocked and angered by these comments,” he said. “The constitution has become the biggest issue here among Hindus, Muslims and everyone else.”
Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda is seen as a powerful tool for him to win votes in the Hindi heartland. Still, many in Uttar Pradesh spoke of their disgust at the prime minister’s seemingly increasingly anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign.
Purvi, who uses only one name, a 35-year-old teacher from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh region, said she voted for Modi in the last election, swayed by his image as a strong-willed leader. This time she voted for the Samajwadi Party, accusing Modi of “polarizing the nation”.
“Every day my Muslim friends feel scared by the hatred that Modi and his party associates are spreading,” Purvi said. “How can I vote for the party whose leaders call Muslims infiltrators, terrorists, those who breed more? We have never seen a government so dangerous to the foundation of this nation and especially to its minorities.
Even in the prime minister’s constituency of the holy city of Varanasi, also in Uttar Pradesh, Modi’s luster appeared to have faded and his margin of victory went from almost half a million votes in 2019 to 150,000 on Tuesday.
The frustration was summed up by Sushmita Singh, 54, a civil servant who voted for Modi in the last two elections, believing he would bring prosperity. This time she voted for the Congress, India’s largest opposition party, also part of the INDIA coalition, angered by the animosity she believed was brewing between Hindus and Muslims and the government’s failure to create good jobs for the growing youth population.
“People associated with the BJP are getting VIP treatment in Varanasi, while common people are suffering and being abused,” Singh said. “BJP is increasing its influence and behaving like colonial rulers.”
She added, “If a place like Varanasi, where the Prime Minister himself is elected to Parliament, has not developed much in the last 10 years, then I have little reason to believe Modi’s promise for the development of our country. “
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