Experts see temple-mosque disputes ahead of 2027 UP polls as effort to polarise voters

Lucknow, Dec 29 (PTI) Although the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are due only in 2027, political experts suggest that the increasing number of temple-mosque disputes in the state and the resultant polarisation have started to set the political narrative.

Analysts point to the recent bypolls in the state where slogans like “Batenge to Katenge” (divided we perish) played a key role in ensuring Hindu unity. And it is in this backdrop that the experts feel that the intensifying temple-mosque polarisation pitch has its own implications.

“During the bypolls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Batenge to Katenge’ slogan was seen as a response to the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) attempt to create caste-based mobilisation using the PDA (Backwards, Dalits, Minorities) move. The outcome (of the bypolls) was clearly in favour of the BJP,” political analyst Rajeev Ranjan told PTI.

Of the nine Assembly seats that went to bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won seven, while the main opposition SP secured the two remaining seats.

“Recent developments indicate that the process of polarisation may intensify further as 2027 approaches,” Ranjan added.

Such expert opinions are fuelled by a recent spate of claims –“ from the existence of a Shivling in Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque to similar assertions in Sambhal, Badaun, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar and Bulandshahr.

In the latest case, a petition was filed in Badaun earlier this month, claiming that a Neelkanth Mahadev temple existed where the Jama Masjid now stands. A local court will hear the maintainability of the plea in January.

Meanwhile, violence erupted in November during a court-ordered survey of Sambhal’s Shahi Jama Masjid, leaving four people dead. Hindu groups have claimed that a Hariharanath temple previously existed where the Mughal-era mosque stands.

Political observers feel that such claims may gain currency in the run-up to 2027 polls, impacting the political climate in Uttar Pradesh.

Former vice-chancellor of the Lucknow University and social activist Professor Roop Rekha Verma accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government of promoting communal polarisation.

“Such incidents are happening across the country, but these cannot be dismissed as a mere coincidence given the political groundwork for the 2027 Assembly election,” she told PTI.

Verma argued that after the opposition’s relatively strong performance in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year, the ruling party has intensified its efforts to regain political space.

In the general election, the BJP secured 33 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Apna Dal (S) won two seats and one seat respectively. The SP captured 37 seats, while the Congress won six and one seat went to the Azad Samaj Party.

Responding to recent surveys and excavations in Sambhal’s mosques, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “These people will keep searching and digging until one day, they dig their own government out. They believe in systems, not democracy.”

State BJP spokesperson Harish Chandra Srivastava hit back at Yadav. “The SP and the Congress want to climb the ladder of power by ignoring justice and indulging in appeasement politics. But the people are now aware of the truth,” he told PTI.

Citing past communal incidents, Srivastava said, “Who will answer for the massacres and violence in Sambhal during the 1978 and 1982 riots, where countless Hindus were killed and their houses burnt? Why did those victims not get justice?”

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary feels that the “BJP’s ploy” would backfire. “Their motives are anti-people and their strategy will turn against them. In 2027, Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA strategy will prevail,” he said.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat recently called for restraint in raising new temple-related disputes. Speaking in Pune on December 19, he said, “The Ram mandir (in Ayodhya) holds a special place for Hindus, but raising such issues to become leaders of Hindus in new places is not acceptable.”

Professor Sushil Kumar Pandey from the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University said communal polarisation is likely to grow in the coming days. “Many Hindu worship sites were destroyed during the Islamic rule. With favourable political conditions and the Ram mandir’s construction, revisiting historical grievances will undoubtedly escalate communal tensions and have political ramifications,” he added.