Sunil Lahri, who played Lakshman in Ramayana, has slammed the voters of Ayodhya after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was defeated by the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad where Ram Temple is located.

In a series of Instagram stories, Sunil went to the extent of calling Ayodhya voters "betrayer" for not voting in favour of BJP, which has fulfilled the poll promise of construction of Ram Temple.

He said as quoted by Hindustan Times, "We are forgetting that these are the same Ayodhya citizens who doubted Goddess Sita after she returned from exile.

"What do you call that person who even denies God? Selfish. History is witness that the citizens of Ayodhya have always betrayed their king. Shame on them."

In a separate post, Sunil has raised doubt whether the BJP-led NDA government would run smoothly as the saffron party failed to get a majority and needed allies.

"I was very disappointed to see the election results, firstly the voting was low and then this result..," he said.

SP's Dalit candidate Awdhesh Prasad emerged victorious from Faizabad defeating BJP's Lallu Singh by over 54,000 votes.

The Faizabad constituency has assumed importance as Ram Temple, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi in January 2024, was a major poll plank for the BJP.

Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has derailed the BJP juggernaut in the northern state, which contributed heavily to the saffron party in forming governments in 2014 and 2019 General Elections, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Out of 80 seats, the highest in any Indian state, SP alone won 37 with its ally Congress bagging 6 ahead of BJP's 35.