Ayodhya temple 'loot', police action on student protesters cost BJP Bankipur seat, says Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday, August 4, claimed that the "loot" of the Ayodhya Ram Temple and the anger over police action against students at the NEET paper leak protests had contributed to the BJP's loss in the Bihar Bankipur assembly by-election.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Monday, August 3, stunned the saffron party by wresting the Bankipur assembly constituency in Bihar, a BJP bastion since 1995, in a by-poll that was necessitated after its national president Nitin Nabin vacated the seat.
Kishor defeated his nearest BJP rival Neeraj Kumar by a margin of 19,324 votes.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Raut said that the student protests at Jantar Mantar and the subsequent police action against the young protesters, the "loot" in the Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya and the BJP leadership's subsequent silence on these issues were reasons for the saffron party's defeat in its stronghold, Bankipur.
He further claimed that the video of a performer dressed as Hindu deity Hanuman dancing and waving the BJP flag while welcoming party president Nitin Nabin in Lucknow had hurt people's sentiments.
The bypoll results had boosted the Opposition's confidence, the Rajya Sabha MP said, citing the Allahabad bypoll in 1988 necessitated after the resignation of actor Amitabh Bachchan, which was won V P Singh, and his victory became the start of the Congress's decline in the country.
Raut also cited that the BJP had lost the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, vacated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after representing it for five terms, to the Samajwadi Party in 2018.
He further claimed that those participating in RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's interaction with Gen Z at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai this week will be children or grandchildren of BJP leaders or Sangh's representatives.
"Who else will go there? They (those participating) are not Gen Z," Raut said, adding that Gen Zs were those who protested at Jantar Mantar, braved tear gas and batons, and they should be the ones to be invited to the RSS chief's event.
