Mathura, Kashi take centre stage, a gangster-politician is shot on live TV: Uttar Pradesh in 2023

Lucknow: As construction of the Ram temple on a once-disputed piece of land in Ayodhya picked pace over the past year, two other temple-mosque disputes reached significant milestones in courts.

Also, during 2023, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad met his end: he was shot dead along with his brother Ashraf Ahmad while the police were escorting them to a hospital. UP strongmen Mukhtar Ansari and Azam Khan suffered big political jolts.

The Allahabad High Court delivered two rulings that fanned new life into disputes in Varanasi and Mathura, where major mosques stand adjacent to prominent temples. In each case, Hindu litigants argue that the mosques were built over portions of demolished temples during the Mughal rule.

The High Court recently gave the go-ahead for a survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex adjacent to the Krishna Janmasthan temple in Mathura.

Earlier, on the orders of a local court, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) surveyed the Gyanvapi mosque next to the Kashi-Vishwanath temple. For now, the survey report remains in sealed cover.

And in a more significant ruling, the High Court dismissed the Muslim side's challenge on the maintainability of a three-decade-old petition by Hindu litigants seeks the 'restoration' of the Gyanvapi mosque.

The High Court dismissed Muslim side's argument that the suit was barred under Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 - a law that was supposedly meant to put an end to similar legal tussles once the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque dispute was settled.

That Act barred the conversion of the religious character of a place of worship from what existed on 15 August 1947. But the High Court has now said the 'religious character' can only be determined in court through evidence offered by both sides.

Either the Gyanvapi compound has a Hindu religious character or a Muslim religious character. It can't have dual character at the same time, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said.

Ayodhya, the site of the biggest temple-mosque dispute of all, is being readied for the 'pran pratistha', or the consecration, of the Ram Lalla idol at the new temple on January 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the mega event that comes just months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust triggered a minor row by suggesting that it would be best if BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who were at the forefront of the Ram Mandir agitation, kept away from the event because of their age and health.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) quickly stepped in for damage control There has been an infrastructure development spree in Ayodhya in tandem with the temple construction - from the widening of roads to the construction work on a new airport.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath even convened a meeting of cabinet meeting in the city - his ministers travelled there from Lucknow - on the anniversary of the SC judgment in 2019 that paved the way for the temple's construction.

In September, an assembly by-election in Ghosi in Mau district brought some hope to the opposition's INDIA grouping, which aims to take on the BJP in 2024. Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh defeated his BJP rival, as the Congress (also the BSP) refrained from entering the contest.

But there was bickering again ahead of the recent series of assembly polls. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called UP Congress chief Ajai Rai names over his comments on the failed seat-sharing talks between the two parties in Madhya Pradesh.

As of now, Yadav doesn't appear to be in a mood to yield much space in UP for the Congress in 2024.

The SP's Muslim face Azam Khan, who dominated politics in Rampur district for decades, saw his citadel facing what could be the final blow in 2023.

The Suar constituency in Rampur that fell vacant after his son was disqualified from the assembly following his conviction in a 15-year-old case was wrested in May by BJP ally Apna Dal (S).

Azam Khan himself was similarly disqualified from Rampur Sadar seat the previous year.

Another strongman Mukhtar Ansari had to come to terms with a conviction in yet another case, and the disqualification of his son Ashraf Ansari from Parliament.

In his speeches during the local body elections in May, Adityanath projected UP as a state with 'zero tolerance' towards crime. But crime hogged headlines routinely in the country's most populous state.

Six people, five of them from a single family, were killed in Deoria in October over a land dispute. Brahmin versus Yadav politics played out over the bloodbath.

The goriest video clip of the year was the killing of politician-gangster Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad in April. Three assailants masquerading as journalists gunned down the brothers while the police were escorting them to hospital.

The brothers had been brought by UP Police to Prayagraj from a jail in Ahmedabad in connection with the February 24 murder of Umesh Pal, a key witness in a political killing nearly two decades earlier.

Atiq Ahmad had expressed fear that he would be killed in a fake encounter by UP police on the way to Prayagraj.

Before him and his brother, four other men allegedly involved in the Umesh Pal murder were killed in police encounters over a matter of days. Police claimed they fired when fired upon.

When the Pal murder was brought up in the state assembly by Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath had made a prophetic remark vowing to ground such 'mafia' to dust. "Mittee mein mila denge," he had said.