Not just Ayodhya, BJP's candidate and son of man behind Ram Temple construction lost too

The Saffron Party, which emerged as a result of the temple movement, views the Bharatiya Janata Party’s defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha constituency of Faizabad, where the Ram Mandir is being constructed, as a major setback.

But the defeat at Shravasti, a Lok Sabha constituency located 100 kilometers away, happened at the same time as the loss in Faizabad, the location of the majestic temple.

Saket Misra, the son of Nripendra Misra, the bureaucrat in charge of the trust that is building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, was the BJP candidate from Shravasti. At the moment, Saket Misra is a member of the Legislative Council for Uttar Pradesh.

On January 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the pran pratishtha ceremony for the Ram Lalla idol in the shrine.

Political analysts predicted that the BJP would benefit electorally from the construction of the Ram Mandir.

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But the BJP suffers a double blow with Saket Misra’s loss, which also happens to be the BJP’s loss in Faizabad. The Samajwadi Party (SP) defeated the BJP in both seats.

Only months after the Pran Prathishtha celebration in Ayodhya, the SP’s Ram Shiromani Verma defeated the BJP’s Saket Misra in Shravasti, while its candidate, Awadhesh Prasad, defeated the BJP’s Lallu Singh in Faizabad.

Lallu Singh of the BJP has served as the Faizabad MP since 2014.

Because Shravasti is the location of Mahatma Buddha’s penance and the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s karmabhoomi (place of employment), it is also significant historically and culturally.

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In Buddhist mythology, Shravasti holds a significant position as the location where Gautam Buddha spent numerous monsoons and worked numerous miracles following his enlightenment at Bodh Gaya.

Ancient Hindu literature such as the Mahabharata also mention Shravasti, linking it to the reign of King Sravasta. Shravasti has also been linked to a number of Tirthankaras in Jainism, notably Sambhavanatha, the third Tirthankara.

Atal Vihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister, was elected from the Balrampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh when he first entered parliament in 1957. After the 2008 delimitation exercise, the lands that were part of the Balrampur seat were eventually taken over by the Shravasti Lok Sabha constituency.

In 1967, ten years later, Vajpayee was elected again.