An eunuch is threatening to break the BJP’s unbroken 22-year stint in Ayodhya Assembly seat, which goes to polls on Wednesday.
Apparently concerned over the scale of threat, the local BJP leadership is accusing rival parties of having ganged up to unseat the saffron party from the very land where the party perfected its Hindutva brand of politics.
Sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Lallu Singh is caught in a multi-cornered contest with Samajwadi Party’s young candidate Tejnarayan Pandey, alias Pawan Pandey, Congress’ Rajendra Singh, BSP’s Ved Gupta and Rajesh Mishra of Peace Party. However, it’s Gulshan Bindu, an eunuch, who is causing much of the trouble to the BJP.
“Bindu is part of a larger conspiracy by rivals against us. She has come from Delhi and has unleashed unprecedented money power. People are getting misguided,” said Raj Kumar Sachdeva, town president of the BJP. In the Ayodhya temple town, people, however, appear impressed by the claim of Bindu, that she has no family and hence she would spend her wealth on the development of Ayodhya.
“She has taken an oath on the name of Hanumanji, that she would only work for development. Therefore, people are believing her that they can trust a naamard (eunuch) this time,” said Ashish Shukla.
A concerned BJP youth president here Abhishek Mishra tried to reason that change should be an issue when there is a natural imbalance but Lallu Singh is pro-development himself, so what is the need for change.
“Rivals have ganged up. The Samajwadi Party has put up a Brahmin candidate, while the Congress has fielded a Thakur hailing from same caste, which Mr Singh comes from and BSP has put up a trader. They are all attempting to split the traditional vote base of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Mr Mishra reasoned.
Though Ayodhya appears to be quite an open contest, temple town still reverberates with militant Hinduism, with scores of shops selling CDs of karsevaks filmed in acts of demolition.
While security personnel here on election duty makes a beeline to have a darshan of Ramlala, police personnel and priests tell them stories of December 6, 1992, with unabated pride along with hope that one day the grand temple would be built after which lakhs of people will visit here to change the economy of Ayodhya for the better.