Overview

• The Uttar Pradesh cabinet approved an ordinance on May 26 to establish the Shri Banke Bihari Ji Temple Trust under the Department of Charitable Affairs.
• Akhilesh Yadav charged that the BJP is using the trust’s formation as a pretext to seize indirect control of prominent temples across India.
• He said centuries-old sevadar families are being stripped of their management rights amid what he described as ‘administrative corruption.’
• Yadav warned that government appointees treat temple operations like profit ventures and cited cases where offerings were sold off by officials.
• The dispute highlights escalating political tensions between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP over state intervention in religious institutions.