Experts say that this trend will continue till the 2027 assembly elections, which will be crucial for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to complete his bid to replace Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, members of the Hindu Mahasabha opened the doors of the deserted Shiva temple in Madhopur village of Farrukhabad and performed Jalabhishekam of the idol. Priest Ishwar Das claimed that the temple was occupied, while villagers say that no one used to visit the four-decade-old temple due to lack of maintenance. Two days ago, Amarnath Mishra, the leader of an unknown organization called Brahmin Sansad, claimed that there is a temple under the market complex near the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow. It was built by Gajraj Singh in 1885 and there were idols of Shiva and Radha-Krishna there, but the ‘goons’ of the Samajwadi Party built a market complex there in 1992. The owner of the complex, Syed Hussain, says that he has not encroached on any temple and that he is present in the basement. A devotee named Rajneesh Shukla said that he has been worshipping in the temple every evening for the last fifteen years. Together they improved the condition of the temple and there are idols of Shiva, Kishan and Radha there. Those who talk about encroachment have never been seen here.
When Bhagwat said that the search for temples under the mosque has stopped, Yogi immediately claimed that Sanatan Dharma is the national religion of India. Referring to the temple disputes of Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and Sambhal, Yogi asked who were the ones who damaged these symbols of Sanatan Dharma in the past? Many sadhus supporting Yogi from UP have also criticized Bhagwat’s statement. From Ghaziabad in the west of UP to Jaunpur in the east, Hindutva groups have found several ‘temples’ in a matter of days with the help of local administration.
Adityanath had formed the Hindu Yuva Vahini when he was a member of the Lok Sabha from UP, but he had formally dissolved it after becoming the Chief Minister in 2017. Even after this, the organisation is active in every district and its leaders are constantly accused of violence and intimidation. The leaders of the Vahini are searching for temples in different places. Experts say that Bhagwat cannot stop Adityanath’s followers from searching for temples because BJP governments have ‘blinded’ several RSS leaders. Even Bhagwat travels with government security, while his predecessors did not take government security.
