As Ayodhya returns to the centre of Uttar Pradesh's political discourse, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari has dismissed Akhilesh Yadav's Ram Temple outreach as "election-time Hindutva" and challenged the Samajwadi Party chief to contest from Ayodhya. Bhandari argued that the SP's 2024 success in Faizabad-Ayodhya was a political exception rather than a lasting trend, while accusing the Congress and SP of pursuing a coordinated vote-bank strategy.