Politics is intense regarding Manikarnika Ghat temple of Varanasi. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that no one has demolished as many mythological temples as were demolished during the BJP rule. On this, Union Minister of State SP Singh Baghel has given a sharp reaction and said that the opposition is making wrong statements.

Speaking to news agency IANS, Union Minister of State SP Singh Baghel said, “This statement of Akhilesh Yadav was given at Manikarnika Ghat and it is to Ahilya Ghat. On his claim that no leader has caused as much destruction, I would like to say that among those who demolished temples, notice “Invaders like Qutubuddin Aibak, Iltutmish, Razia Sultana, Balban, Khilji, Tughlaq and Mughals are included.”

He said that today the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi has been constructed by the BJP government itself, due to which the devotees are easily able to have darshan. The BJP government works in the interest of the public, but the opposition knowingly spreads wrong information among the public, that is why now the public has also stopped trusting them.

SP Singh Baghel said that earlier when we used to go for darshan at Kashi Vishwanath temple, people used to face problems in the narrow streets and people could not even get darshan properly, but today one lakh devotees are getting darshan daily and there is no problem. That is why construction work has been done in many temples including Mahakal Ujjain.

The Union Minister of State said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself keeps taking information about mythological temples from his MLAs and gets them renovated. The temple 200 meters away from my house has also been renovated. I believe that the government is doing the right thing. No one is going to have any problem in this.

He said that history knows who has demolished temples and changed them in a different form in the last one thousand years. BJP people are worshipers of Sanatan and work only for Sanatan. Therefore, no matter what allegations Akhilesh Yadav makes, the public does not believe him. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India work to take all religions together.​