SP’s Ayodhya winner: ‘BJP kept saying hum Ram ko laaye hain, the reality is they did business in the name of Ram’

As the Samajwadi Party (SP) outperformed the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, one of its highlights was the victory in the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency of which Ayodhya is a part. The party’s veteran MLA Awadhesh Prasad, one of the SP’s founder members, defeated two-time MP Lallu Singh by 54,567 votes. Prasad was the only Dalit candidate to win from a non-reserved constituency in UP.

Prasad’s win is being viewed as an ideological victory of the SP and the INDIA bloc since Ayodhya, where the Ram Temple is located, was a prestige battle for the BJP. Since his victory, Prasad’s supporters and well-wishers have been thronging his home, some coming with bouquets and others with photos of B R Ambedkar and Mulayam Singh Yadav. In the interview with The Indian Express, Prasad discusses the significance of his victory, the Ram Temple issue, and gets emotional while remembering his mother Maina Devi, who passed away while he was in prison during the Emergency.

Excerpts:

This is not my victory, this is the victory of the great people of Ayodhya. I fully resolve that I will live up to the feelings and expectations of the people. Awadhesh Prasad will consider it his victory when he lives up to what he promised.

The BJP was spreading lies in the country, saying, ‘Hum Ram ko laaye hain (We brought back Ram)’. The reality is they cheated the country in the name of Ram, did business in the name of Ram, allowed inflation to rise in the name of Ram, created unemployment in the name of Ram, and uprooted the poor and farmers in the name of Ram. The BJP has worked to destroy the dignity of Ram. People have understood this very well.

Of course. The BJP knows to do one thing very well — Hindu-Muslim polarisation and repeated