The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is voting for a new government – and a massive temple under construction in the holy city of Ayodhya is a key electoral issue.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – also in power in Uttar Pradesh – has long campaigned to build the temple on the site where a medieval mosque was destroyed by Hindu mobs in 1992. They believe that it was built on the ruins of a temple of Lord Ram, and that Ayodhya was his birthplace.
As money and attention pours into the new Ram temple, thousands of locals whose livelihoods depend on the city’s many other temples are wary.
They fear their work could disappear as older, decaying temples are demolished or fall outside the government’s ambitious plan to turn Ayodhya into a tourist hub.
Video by Nitin Srivastava and Neha Sharma
