The Faizabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh, which includes Ayodhya, has been in the headlines ever since the results of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 were declared. Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad defeated BJP candidate Lallu Singh in this constituency. On January 22 this year, the newly built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was consecrated in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and veteran leaders of the BJP. The Mandir issue featured prominently in the BJP’s electoral campaign.
It is now being claimed on social media that the BJP lost all the seats within a radius of 100 kilometres of Ayodhya. TV9 Bharatvarsh published a report with the headline claiming that the BJP could not win in areas within 100 kilometres of Ayodhya.
A user named Raj Bhaduri shared this claim taking a dig at the BJP. He wrote that Sri Ram did not allow the hypocrites to come to power near Him.
The claim is also being widely circulated on Facebook.
Fact Check
We took a close look at the map of Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh and found that Faizabad was surrounded by seven Lok Sabha constituencies. These include Gonda, Kaiserganj, Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Basti.
Out of these seven seats, five seats were secured by the INDIA alliance, out of which 3 went to the Samajwadi Party, and 2 to Congress. In the other two, Gonda and Kaiserganj, the BJP emerged victorious.
In Gonda, BJP’s Kirtivardhan Singh defeated his nearest rival by 46,224 votes. In Kaiserganj, BJP’s Karan Bhushan Singh secured a win by a margin of 1,48,843 votes.
When we checked the distance between Ayodhya and Gonda on Google Maps, we found that they were located 50-60 km apart. We also checked the distance between Ayodhya and Kaiserganj. The distance between them is about 85-95 km. It is worth noting that this distance is often calculated by Google Maps from the city headquarters. Therefore, in reality, the distance between the border areas of the two Lok Sabha constituencies can be less than what is seen on Google Maps.
To sum it up, a misleading claim was made on social media about the BJP not winning any seats in areas located within a 100 kilometre radius of Ayodhya. Out of the total of seven seats falling under this area, the BJP has actually won two.
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