Etawah had its eyes on one gate: that of the Kedareshwar Mahadev temple, the Kedarnath look-alike Akhilesh Yadav has raised in his home district. The Samajwadi Party chief was expected to roll out his Rath Yatra from there. On September 24, he started from Rae Bareli instead.
In Rae Bareli, Akhilesh prayed at the Peepaleshwar Hanuman Mandir in Churva, organised a havan at the Dakshinmukhi Hanuman Mandir near Jahanabad Chauki and accepted a mace from locals.
“We had thought he would launch his campaign in his chariot from the gate of his own shrine, as proof that he is a bigger Hindu than the BJP leaders,” said Santosh Yadav, 25, whose family has traditionally backed the SP.
Why Rae Bareli? Akhilesh began the Samajwadi PDA Rath Yatra (PDA: Pichhra or OBC, Dalit, Alpsankhyak or Muslim) in the Lok Sabha seat of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, apparently to woo the Lodhi community and to press the Congress to accept seat-sharing on the SP’s terms. Samajwadi leaders say Akhilesh has offered 50 seats; the Congress wants over 150.
The Lodhis usually vote for the BJP, and Akhilesh saw an opening when police lathi-charged Rahul Lodhi, the SP MLA from Harchandpur, during a membership drive in Rae Bareli. He says he launched the yatra to back victimised party workers.
The Congress bristled. “We will start our campaign from Saifai and Mainpuri,” said Ajay Rai, recently replaced as the state Congress chief, pointing at the Akhilesh Yadav family’s home turf. Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav is the MP from Mainpuri. Since the opening day, the yatra has not resumed, and no schedule or route has been announced.
Under construction for three years beside the Lion Safari Park on the Etawah-Gwalior Highway, the temple has opened to devotees without a formal consecration. The SP president’s hand is no secret. “Those who criticise Akhilesh must visit Etawah and see the Kedareshwar temple which he is constructing,” said Virendra Singh, the Samajwadi MP from Chandauli.
Sources said Akhilesh wanted to call it Kedarnath Mandir, but Kedar Dham’s management objected in a letter to the Centre and the state government, accusing him of insulting the ancient shrine. The name was changed.
In August, Akhilesh posted a picture of the unfinished temple on X with a Hindi poem placing it on the Shiv Shakti Aksh Rekha, a line linking seven revered Shiva temples.
Etawah arithmetic
The BJP’s Sarita Bhadauria won Etawah Sadar in 2022; the Samajwadi Party took Bharthana (reserved) and Jaswantnagar. “Akhilesh’s temple will help him only if the BJP fields its sitting MLA, because there is anti-incumbency against her,” said a local journalist who asked not to be named.
Grocer Ramesh Gupta saw a message beyond Etawah. “This temple is Akhilesh’s answer to the BJP, particularly when the Hindutva party takes credit for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. This is Akhilesh’s silent Hindutva in response to the boastful but empty Hindutva of the BJP,” he said.
In June, police arrested eight Ram temple employees for allegedly stealing lakhs of rupees from its vault. Akhilesh claims senior trust members were behind the theft. “Those who were guilty have been put in jail,” said Mahant Dinendra Das, a trustee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. “Those who make unnecessary allegations should come forward with proof.”
Signal in shrines
A contractor in Saifai, the ancestral village of Akhilesh’s family, told The Telegraph that the SP chief will soon unveil a giant Krishna idol there. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP founder and Akhilesh’s father, built a huge Hanuman idol in the village years ago. “Even Mulayam often juggled this idea, but he never made it public for fear that Muslims would desert him,” said the contractor, who asked not to be named.
Ahead of 2027, Akhilesh is leaving no stone unturned. On October 8, he attended a Srimad Bhagwat Katha at Ayodhya candidate Pawan Pandey’s home but skipped the Ram temple, 15km away. In Lucknow on September 17, he promised a Vishwakarma temple on the Gomti Riverfront, and he has pledged “special cow management projects”, a plank long owned by the BJP.
On October 4, the Vishwa Hindu Raksha Parishad put up a hoarding inviting him to its Dharma Sansad to back a Krishna temple in Mathura. Akhilesh ignored it, but told workers: “We are real Hindus, but the BJP is not.”
What Muslims say
For Muslim leaders, “silence” is not the word. “There were many occasions when Akhilesh Yadav disappointed the Muslims. He is trying to adopt the ideology of Hindutva,” said Shahabuddin Razvi, head of the All India Muslim Jamaat. “The Muslims are looking for an option. It could be the Congress.”
Razvi said he recently asked Akhilesh to name a Muslim chief ministerial candidate and give Muslims 150 of 403 tickets. “He didn’t care to reply. Obviously, he wants our vote but doesn’t want to empower us. His temple building and idol installation would further annoy the Muslims,” Razvi said.
Pradeep Shakya Bablu, the SP’s Etawah president, sidestepped. “Our priority at the moment is to expose the Election Commission,” he said, referring to the Opposition campaign against the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar. On the temple, Bablu was evasive. “Our plan will be made public soon,” he said.
The BJP’s district president, Arun Kumar Gupta, was dismissive. “The SP is not sure whether it should really campaign in the election or not,” he said.