Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife, Dimple Yadav, will visit the Ram Temple and Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya on December 12, former SP MLA Pawan Pandey said, according to news agency PTI.
The proposed visit, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s first since the Ram Temple’s consecration in January 2024, comes ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early 2027.
The ruling BJP has, so far, criticised Akhilesh for not visiting the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, accusing him of appeasement politics, while the opposition leader has attacked the saffron party and Sangh-aligned outfits of “chanda chori (donation theft)” at the grand temple.
“Both Akhilesh ji and his wife Dimple Yadav ji will visit Ram Temple and also visit the Hanumangarhi temple at Ayodhya on December 12,” Pandey told reporters in Ayodhya. Pandey has again been named the SP candidate from Ayodhya.
The announcement came as the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government focussed on organising the annual Deepotsav celebrations in Ayodhya.
“The SP chief will, along with his family, visit Ayodhya, where, along with visiting temples including Hanumangarhi and Ram Temple, he will also interact with saints and seek their blessings,” said Pandey, who won the Ayodhya seat in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh elections during the SP wave.
The visit is expected to become a talking point in the state’s politics.
It is being seen as an attempt by the SP leadership to adopt “soft Hindutva” to counter the BJP. The BJP has repeatedly referred to the police firing on unarmed karsevaks in Ayodhya in the 1990s, when the SP government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav was in power.
Akhilesh had earlier responded to questions about visiting the Ram Temple by saying he would do so only after the Samajwadi Party-built Kedareshwar Dham in Etawah was completed.
Attacking the opposition party by dubbing it as “Namazwadi party”, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) asked the ex-UP CM to apologise for his alleged remarks against Lord Ram, the Ram temple and Hindu religious beliefs before entering Ayodhya.
In a post on X, the outfit’s national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said Akhilesh should make six commitments before visiting Ayodhya, including seeking “forgiveness” for his attacks on Lord Ram, his birthplace, the Ram temple, the Ramcharitmanas, Goswami Tulsidas, Sanatan and Hindu beliefs.
“Election has come, so has the temple (Chunaav aaya, mandir laaya)… However, for now, this is merely a build-up ahead of his arrival, so that over the next five days he can study people’s reactions and assess the response of his extremist voters. Even if he does not visit, he will get media coverage till then,” the VHP leader stated.
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(With PTI inputs)
