Decode Politics: In Kanpur, amid fire from Mayawati, Azad, why BJP civic body scrapped Shivalaya Park

What is Shivalaya Park?

The KMC came up with the proposal after a similar park in Prayagraj, built during the Maha Kumbh Mela earlier this year, received rave reviews. It zeroed in on a portion of the Buddha Park as its site after a survey.

According to Kanpur Municipal Commissioner Sudhir Kumar, the administration had planned to showcase 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva in the Shivalaya Park. It also had plans to build an amusement area, a happiness park, fountains and a kids zone there.

What is the row?

Spread over 30 acres in the heart of Kanpur in Kalyannagar, the Buddha Park was established during the tenure of the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh.

Over the years, a large section of the park, including the water body on its premises, had been lying in a state of neglect.

The KMC’s proposal to set up the Rs 15-crore Shivalaya Park on the Buddha Park’s premises drew flak from both the Opposition and a BJP section. BSP supremo Mayawati, Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Aazad, and some BJP corporators opposed the Shivalaya Park, charging that plans were being made to convert a portion of the Buddha Park – which also houses a statue of B R Ambedkar – for religious purposes.

What is Opposition’s stance?

Holding that the original proposal hurt the sentiments of the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities, Mayawati welcomed the BJP dispensation’s decision to scrap it. “We are thankful to the Uttar Pradesh government for scrapping the highly controversial proposal to set up a Shivalaya Park in the famous Buddha Park of Kanpur. We hope the government will also act seriously against such controversies so that the atmosphere of peace and order, mutual brotherhood, and harmony does not deteriorate,” she said in a post on X Wednesday, adding that the project would have caused unrest.

On August 31, Azad wrote to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, urging him to halt the proposal. “The Buddha Park is not just a green area but a symbolic place associated with the ideas of compassion, equality and brotherhood of Ambedkar and Lord Buddha. Converting it into a religious place of any particular sect or religion will hurt the sentiments of the Dalits. Public places should not be converted to religious sites… It is essential that the Buddha Park be retained in its original form and
new projects be undertaken at other places,” he stated.

The KMC’s proposal also upset a section of the BJP corporators. In a letter to Kanpur Mayor and BJP leader Pramila Pandey, party corporator Neeraj Kureel urged her to rethink over the proposal. “I am a representative of the SC community besides being a corporator. I had raised the issue in the Executive Council meeting of the Municipal Corporation but it was not taken seriously,” his letter read.

Kureel also demanded that a beautification project be taken up at the Buddha Park while keeping the message of Lord Buddha in mind. “Instead of restoring the old glory of the Buddha Park, the administration decided to develop another park inside it. The Mayor has assured that this would not happen. We are happy that they have decided to shift the Shivalaya Park elsewhere,” Kureel told The Indian Express.

Why Dalit factor is crucial in UP politics?

The SCs have been the core vote base of the BSP in UP. In the wake of the BSP’s decline over the last several years, other political parties in the state like the Samajwadi Party (SP), BJP and Congress have been making all efforts to reach out to Dalits.

Since its campaign in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the SP has been attempting to woo the SCs with its Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) plank. Recently, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party organised a large-scale, week-long programme to mark Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. Accounting for about 23% of the state’s population, Dalits are expected to play a key role in deciding the outcome of the 2027 Assembly polls.

What is KMC’s position?

Following the eruption of the controversy, the KMC has denied any plans to develop the Shivalaya Park, calling the row a “mere confusion”.

The BJP Mayor has clarified that neither the name nor the structure of the Buddha Park would be changed in any form and that the “confusion” was caused because the survey was conducted on the vacant land in Indira Nagar near it.