Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav offers prayer at the Gauri Shankar Mahadev temple, in Kannauj, Monday, May 6, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kannauj (UP): The Samajwadi Party has reacted sharply to the BJP workers allegedly washing a temple here after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had visited there during his election tour.
Akhilesh Yadav had visited the Siddh Baba Gaurishankar Mahadev temple on Monday, offered prayers and sought blessings of the Lord. Subsequently, the BJP workers allegedly washed the temple with the holy Ganga water.
Reacting to the incident, Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said, "The manner in which the BJP washed the temple, the public will also wash it in a similar way, by voting (it out), and it will never return again... The PDA (pichhda, Dalit, alpsankhyak) is going to wash them (BJP) this time. Seeing the imminent defeat in the elections, the BJP people are doing such petty acts," he said.
An SP worker said the puja was performed by Kannauj's scholar Acharya Pandit Karuna Shankar. At that time, temple priest Mathura Prasad and other acharyas chanted the mantras.
Around 6 pm on Monday, BJP city president Shivendra Kumar along with some workers reached the temple shouting slogans and washed the temple premises by mixing 'Gangajal' in buckets, he alleged.
Asked about the washing of the temple with 'Gangajal', Kumar said, "Akhilesh Yadav had come to the temple on Monday with some Muslim youngsters and non-'Sanatani' people, who entered the temple wearing shoes and slippers. Due to this, the temple became impure and it was washed."
"After this, the temple was purified by washing it with 'Gangajal'," Kumar added.
However, BJP district unit president Veer Singh Bhadauria said he has no information regarding the washing of the temple.
Siddh Baba Gaurishankar Mahadev Temple Committee president Rajesh Srivastava said the committee has no role in the temple washing issue. Some people have tried to give it a political colour, he added.
Temple priest Mathura Prasad said the washing of the temple premises was done by the BJP workers, and the temple committee has nothing to do with the incident.
SP chief district spokesperson Vijay Dwivedi alleged that the BJP has started getting nervous due to the "huge public support" Akhilesh Yadav is getting in Kannauj.
He said, "They (BJP) have started considering Lord Ram and Lord Shiva as their property. By washing the Siddh Baba Gaurishankar Mahadev temple, the BJP people have shown their cheap mentality."
Voting in Kannauj will take place in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 13. Akhilesh Yadav is in the fray against sitting BJP MP Subrat Pathak.
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