A section of priests of the Kedarnath temple has threatened to launch a dharna in front of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s house in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah if he doesn’t stop the construction of a shrine modelled on the Uttarakhand temple.

The construction of the Kedareshwar Mahadev temple in front of the Etawah Safari Park along Gwalior Road began on March 7, 2021, after Akhilesh laid its foundation stone.

The temple’s central structure was completed last year, and several kanwariyas have been offering water from the Ganga at the shrine during this Shravan.

Santosh Trivedi, a priest of Kedarnath temple in Chamoli district, said: “We want the Yogi Adityanath government to immediately take possession of the temple in Etawah and change its structure, which is a replica of the revered Kedarnath temple.

“We also want the SP chief to understand the religious crime he has committed by building a replica of the main temple. We may soon sit on a dharna in front of his house at Saifai in Etawah if he doesn’t stop its construction,” Trivedi added.

BJP leader Rakesh Tripathi said Akhilesh had stayed away from the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, citing its incomplete construction.

“But he went to his under-construction temple four months ago and worshipped there. He has opened it for the devotees this Shravan, even though the construction is underway,” Tripathi claimed.

“The SP chief’s devotion is fake and politically motivated,” he added.

Akhilesh had worshipped at the Kedareshwar Mahadev temple four months ago and posted pictures on social media.

An SP source said the party members had donated funds for the temple.

“Reaching Kedarnath temple in the hills of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand is difficult. Our leader has made it easy for the devotees of Shiva to offer prayer in a similar temple in Uttar Pradesh,” an SP leader said.

The temple was thrown open to the devotees on February 26 this year.

SP leader Anurag Bhadauriya said: “Our leader is building this temple. No leader of any other party has done such good work.”

Hemant Dwivedi, head of the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temples Committee, said they were gathering information on the Etawah temple and taking legal opinion.

“We may move the court against the construction of a Kedarnath-like shrine in Etawah,” he said.

Made of granite, the 84-foot-tall main building of the Kedareshwar Mahadev temple is a copy of the 85-foot-tall Kedarnath temple, but its campus is constructed along the lines of Thanjavur’s Brihadeeswara temple.

Last year, a Delhi trust had planned to build a Kedarnath-like temple in the national capital, but shelved the idea following opposition from the priests of the Kedarnath Dham.