Some or other “abandoned”, “demolished” or “encroached on” temple is being “discovered” and “renovated” every other day in Uttar Pradesh despite a warning from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat not to unearth fresh temple-mosque controversies post-Ayodhya.

Political analysts say they expect the trend to continue till the 2027 Assembly elections, crucial to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitions of succeeding Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

On Saturday, a group of Hindu Mahasabha members opened the doors of a deserted Shiva temple in Madhopur village, Farrukhabad, and announced a Jalabhishek (anointment of the idol with holy water) on Monday.

Local people said the four-decade-old temple had been abandoned for lack of maintenance but a priest, Mahant Ishwar Das, alleged encroachment.

“Some villagers encroached on the temple a few years ago and stacked it with hay, straw and cow-dung cake,” Das said. “Hindu Mahasabha members helped me liberate it.”

Two days ago, a Hindu outfit claimed the “discovery” of a rundown temple below a market complex near the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow.

“It was built by Gajraj Singh in 1885 but Samajwadi goons illegally constructed a market complex around it in 1992. I met senior officers on Friday and demanded the shops be razed,” Amarnath Mishra, leader of the little-known Brahmin Sansad, said.

“The temple had Shiva and Radha-Krishna’s idols before 1992 but they were broken.”

Sayid Hussain, owner of the building, said: “I didn’t encroach on any temple. It was always there in the basement.”

Rajnish Shukla, a local devotee, said: “I have been worshipping in this temple every evening for the last 15 years. We (devotees) together renovated it a decade ago. There are idols of Shiva and Krishna-Radha here.”

He added: “Those claiming encroachment never came here to worship but now want to take the temple over.”

It’s these serial “discoveries” of temples in Uttar Pradesh over the last few weeks that seemed to have prompted Bhagwat’s warning, issued from Pune in mid-December.

The RSS chief had frowned on the trend among Hindu groups to move court claiming this or that Mughal-era mosque was built after destroying a temple. He said the world needed to be shown that India can live in harmony.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) team members assess the progress in excavation work of an ancient stepwell at Chandausi, near Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. PTI

However, Adityanath hit back immediately, claiming the Sanatan Dharma was “the national religion of Bharat”. Mentioning the mosque-temple controversies in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and Sambhal, he asked: “Who were these people who harmed the symbols of the Sanatan Dharma in the past?”

Many sadhus in Uttar Pradesh, known for their proximity to Adityanath, too have spoken out against Bhagwat.

The large-scale temple “discoveries” began after the violence in Sambhal, where a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid — on a petition claiming it was built after destroying a temple — led to clashes that killed four people on November 24.

“Keeping the state charged with religious fervour will help Adityanath unite Hindu voters for the 2027 Assembly elections, where a victory will help him assert himself as a prime ministerial candidate,” a political analyst, who didn’t want to be named, said.

From Ghaziabad in the west to Jaunpur in the east, Hindutva groups have identified many “abandoned temples” over the last few days, with enthusiastic support from the local administrations.

These include a Shiva temple in Salma Hakan mohalla of Khurja town in Bulandshahar. The Sangh Parivar claims that Jatavs, a Dalit community, were the dominant population in the area before being forced to leave in 1990 following communal riots triggered by the Ayodhya movement.

Kailash Bhagmal Gautam, president of the Jatav Vikas Manch, which works in coordination with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, said: “We will resume puja after the temple is renovated.”

Khurja sub-divisional magistrate Durgesh Singh said: “We’ll renovate the place.”

On December 24, Atul Singh, Amethi district general secretary of the BJP, applied to Priti Tiwari, sub-divisional magistrate of the Musafirkhana area, saying a 120-year-old Shiva temple had been discovered in Aurangabad.

“It was built by Jethuram Kori; the family of Ganesh Tiwari later looked after it. But members of a particular community encroached on it 40 years ago,” Singh alleged.

“We have started a probe into the complaint,” Tiwari said.

Hindutva groups in Sambhal claim to have discovered a 150-year-old Banke Bihari temple in the Laxmanganj area of Chandausi town. They say the shrine was damaged during a riot in 2010.

Chandausi tehsildar Dhirendra Kumar Singh said: “It’s good that such a place was discovered. We have found idols of Shiva and Krishna there.”

A Kali temple has been “discovered” below a bridge in Jaunpur town.

Nishad Party MLA Ramesh Singh, a BJP ally, said: “The Mughals and later the British demolished it. It’s good that Hindus are demanding their temples back.”

Hindu Yuva Vahini members held a protest in Modinagar, Ghaziabad, early last week demanding the removal of a graveyard from Abidpur Manki village on the ground that a Shivalinga had been found there. A team of government officials visited the place on December 24 and stationed forces there.

Adityanath had formed the Hindu Yuva Vahini when he was an MP but disbanded it officially after becoming chief minister in 2017. But the outfit, which faces multiple charges of violence and intimidation, continues to function in every district.

Neeraj Sharma, a leader of the Vahini, said: “There was a Shivalinga there for years before the graveyard was developed a decade ago. They covered the Shivalinga while building a wall around the graveyard. We want the government to remove the graveyard.”

Sub-divisional magistrate Puja Gupta said: “The wall of the graveyard will be removed to provide devotees with a passage to the Shivalinga.”

A Shiva temple has been “reopened” in Laddhawala, Muzaffarnagar. Hindutva groups, which claim it was closed when Hindus left the area during the post-Babri riots in 1992, plan a havan and a puja at the shrine.

“We feel unsafe; forces should be deployed here,”said Liyaqat Ali, a Laddawala resident.

A political observer said: “Bhagwat cannot stop Adityanath because many within the Sangh have been obliged by BJP governments. Even Bhagwat has accepted government security, which his predecessors had turned down.”