A hurriedly executed survey of an ancient masjid, protests leading to the death of five, the finding of several “closed” temples since, and an intensified anti-power theft drive around the contested mosque, which resulted in a notice among others to the local Samajwadi Party MP – Sambhal, a town in western Uttar Pradesh, has not been out of the news for the past month.
All this has, in turn, coincided with the ruling BJP’s focus on the town as the site where Kalki, the 10th and final incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is supposed to appear.
Western UP has long remained out of BJP reach, and the party has been keen to change that, reflected in its tie-up with the RLD and the push that helped it wrest the SP bastion of Kundarki, located next door to Sambhal, in the recent bypolls.
BJP sources said, as part of this push, Sambhal is set to join Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi (Varanasi) as pre-eminent religious sites in UP for the party.
On February 19 this year, a month after inaugurating the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a grand temple for Kalki in Sambhal. Like Kalki, Ram is considered an incarnation of Vishnu.
In his speech at the ceremony, Modi said: “When Lord Ram ruled, its impact was felt for thousands of years. Like Lord Ram, Kalki will impact a thousand years.” He also said that the ceremony had come to pass after “18 years of waiting”.
During the recent Winter Session of the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath defended the survey of an ancient mosque in Sambhal in November that had triggered violence, saying the Baburnama talked of a temple at the site. He also invoked the town’s Kalki “connection”, saying that as per the Puranas, the 10th incarnation of Vishnu would be born in Sambhal.
Acharya Pramod Krishnam, the chairman of the Shri Kalki Dham Nirman Trust chairman, who was part of the foundation stone ceremony of the temple along with Modi, told The Indian Express: “Modi jabse Kalki dham aaye hain, tabse Sambhal mein chamatkar pe chamatkar ho rahe hain. Nayi-Nayi khoj ho rahin hain. Aisa lagta hai Bhagwan ka avatar jaldi hoga (Since Modi came to Kalki dham, Sambhal has been witnessing miracle after miracle. New discoveries are being made. It seems God will be reincarnated here soon).”
Echoing Adityanath’s statement in the Assembly, Krishnam said Babur had “demolished” three temples – “one in Ayodhya, which has been re-constructed; another in Panipat; and the third in Sambhal, which was meant for the future incarnation of Shri Hari Vishnu”.
It was the turn of Sambhal to get its due, Krishnam said, adding that work on the Kalki temple will start after Makar Sankranti, i.e. January 14, 2025. A former Congress leader, Krishnam was expelled by the party following his open association with the BJP over the temple.
Krishnam’s remarks regarding “new things being discovered in Sambhal” were a reference to all that had happened since the survey of the Babur-era Shahi Jama Masjid was initiated in Sambhal last month, the same day as a plea was filed in court that a temple used to exist at the site. The survey has been halted for now, following a Supreme Court order directing a stay till January 6.
Claims have now been made of “discovery” of another old, disused temple in a minority- dominated area in Sambhal, apart from ancient idols reportedly found discarded.
The Archaeological Survey of India recently found remains of a tunnel in Sambhal that, it said, may have been used during the 1857 Mutiny against the British.
Apart from religious significance, Sambhal and its adjoining regions also hold political importance for the BJP, which has not been able to make political inroads in the area, with the 2014 win of Satyapal Singh Saini from the Sambhal Lok Sabha seat an exception.
The constituency has voted for either the Samajwadi Party or BSP in the past, including twice (1998, 1999) for SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and once for Mulayam’s cousin and SP leader Ramgopal Yadav in 2004. While veteran SP leader Shafiqur Rehman Barq won the Sambhal Lok Sabha seat in 2019, his grandson Zia ur Rehman Barq was elected as MP this year.
Zia ur Rehman incidentally is among those booked for last month’s violence over the Sambhal mosque, and was recently slapped with a fine of Rs 1.9 crore over alleged power theft and warned of property attachment if he did not pay up within a fortnight.
At the Assembly level too, the BJP has failed to make an impact in Sambhal. In the 2022 Assembly polls, of the five Assembly segments falling under the Sambhal Lok Sabha seat, four were won by the SP. The BJP’s Gulab Devi won the fifth segment, Chandausi (an SC-reserved seat).
Adityanath inducted her as a minister, indicating the importance of Gulab Devi’s win for the party.
The BJP has got a fresh momentum since the recent bypolls for nine Assembly seats in UP, where the party posted impressive wins, particularly in Kundarki, a Muslim-dominated constituency. Kundarki lies near Sambhal, and the bypoll was held a day after the mosque violence at Sambhal.
A BJP leader said that if their campaign works, the party gains would not be restricted to Sambhal alone. “Linking Sambhal to a significant religious place considered the birthplace of the 10thand last incarnation of Lord Vishnu would have an impact on the neighbouring regions as well in the 2027 Assembly elections,” the leader said.
