Samajwadi Party leader Pawan Pandey announced that Akhilesh Yadav will visit Ayodhya on 12 December with his family to pray at Ram Mandir and Hanuman Garhi. The visit generated political reactions in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the assembly elections. Yogi Adityanath criticised the visit and demanded an apology from the Samajwadi Party for past incidents including police firing on kar sevaks and neglect of Ayodhya. He also spoke about investigations into alleged donation theft at the Ram temple. Vishva Hindu Parishad accused the opposition of appeasement politics, while the Samajwadi Party claimed increasing public support.