Akhilesh Yadav’s gambit: Shiva Temple in Etawah signals soft Hindutva shift ahead of 2027 UP polls

The temple’s design borrows elements from the south, including a 50-foot entrance inspired by Thanjavur’s Vaitheeswaran Temple.

Even as Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav mobilises his caste coalition of Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) to challenge the BJP in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, a parallel strategy is quietly unfolding in his political backyard. In the heart of the Yadav belt, Etawah, a sprawling Shiva temple — the Kedareshwar Mahadev Mandir — is being built over 11 acres, emerging as both a spiritual site and a subtle political statement.

This temple, with its grand architecture and spiritual symbolism, is more than a religious monument. It is a counter-narrative to the BJP’s long-standing attack on the SP for allegedly pandering to minorities and neglecting Hindu sentiment. The timeline is telling: Akhilesh laid the foundation of the temple in 2021, just months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the shilanyas of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. In January 2024, when Modi inaugurated the Ayodhya temple, it was Akhilesh’s wife and SP MP Dimple Yadav who led the pran-pratishtha (consecration) ceremony at the partially built Kedareshwar shrine. Both temples are scheduled to be completed before the next Assembly polls. The Etawah temple is set for inauguration on Shivratri, February 15, 2026.

This quiet parallelism marks a calculated entry by Akhilesh Yadav onto a terrain that the BJP has long dominated — the Hindutva turf. The temple, designed in the southern architectural style and rooted in the Char Dham spiritual tradition, serves as a soft rebuttal to the BJP’s accusations that SP is indifferent to Hindu causes.

Located on what planners describe as the Shiva Aksha Rekha — a sacred line that connects eight major Shiva shrines from Kedarnath to Rameshwaram — the Etawah temple aspires to be the ninth node on this spiritual axis. “It lies at 79 degrees east longitude, the same spiritual line connecting Kedarnath and Rameshwaram,” explained Madhu Botta, head of the temple’s construction company.

The temple’s design borrows elements from the south, including a 50-foot entrance inspired by Thanjavur’s Vaitheeswaran Temple, and a Jal Kund resembling the sacred water tank in Tirupati. Its sanctum, at 72 feet, is modelled after the Kedarnath Temple, but built an inch shorter as a symbolic mark of respect to the original.

The construction also echoes the Ram Temple’s traditional methods: the Kedareshwar Mandir is being built without iron or cement. Instead, the structure uses ancient binding materials — a mixture of lime, banana pulp, jaggery, and honey — to bind the massive stones, following temple-building traditions of the past. Like Ayodhya’s Ram Lalla idol, the shrine uses Krishnapurush Shila, a sacred granite sourced from Kanyakumari.

“Akhilesh ji is a true Shiva bhakt,” said Botta. “After the 2013 floods in Kedarnath, many devotees were scared to travel. This temple is for those who may never be able to go to the Himalayas.”

While the temple is attracting a steady stream of devotees — especially during the holy month of Sawan — the SP leadership is carefully avoiding any overt politicisation. The aim appears to be to let the spiritual appeal grow organically, particularly among the Yadavs and other backward castes, without triggering a polarising backlash.

Still, the symbolism is hard to miss. The temple, rising in the home district of Mulayam Singh Yadav, is being viewed as an extension of a quiet rebranding: a party rooted in caste and social justice now staking claim to cultural and spiritual space, historically monopolised by the BJP.

The BJP, however, remains unconvinced. “This is just political tokenism,” said Arun Kumar Gupta, BJP’s Etawah district president. “The SP leadership boycotted the Ayodhya Ram Mandir and even discouraged others from going. Building a temple in Etawah won’t change public perception. Their PDA is all about Yadavs.”

SP leaders contest that view. They point to the legacy of Netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav, who installed a towering Hanuman statue in Etawah years ago, and to the upcoming Krishna statue in Saifai. “The BJP spreads lies that we are anti-Hindu,” said Gopal Yadav, SP general secretary. “Akhilesh ji fasts during Navratri, but we do not turn faith into a media spectacle.”

Beyond politics, local residents are welcoming the temple for its economic and spiritual impact. “I don’t care about BJP or SP,” said Sanjay Yadav, who runs a tea stall near the site. “But this temple gave me a livelihood. I opened my shop when construction started, and it is been good for business.”

For many locals like Manju Yadav, a 58-year-old visitor, the temple is a blessing. “I may never get to Kedarnath, but I can come here. It feels just as sacred,” she said.

The temple, estimated to cost Rs 40–50 crore, is being developed as a pilgrimage centre that could attract lakhs in the future. Whether it shifts voter sentiment or changes the political landscape remains uncertain. But in a state where religion and politics are inseparable, the Kedareshwar Mahadev Mandir is Akhilesh Yadav’s strategic attempt to bridge the gap — between tradition and modernity, caste calculus and cultural resonance.

In doing so, he may be carving out a new space for the SP — one where faith is acknowledged, not flaunted, and where temples serve not just gods, but political realignments.