Modi Temple: The Rajkot Shrine and Why It Was Shut Down

There is no working temple to Narendra Modi that you can visit. One was built in Kotharia village near Rajkot in early 2015, Modi publicly called it shocking, and the statue was pulled out within days. Here is the full story, plus the major temple projects Modi is genuinely tied to, from Ayodhya to Abu Dhabi.

There is no Modi temple you can visit today

If you searched for a temple to Narendra Modi hoping to find an address, there isn't one. A small shrine with a marble idol of Modi was built in Kotharia, a village on the edge of Rajkot in Gujarat, and it made the news in February 2015. It survived about a week. The man behind it was Ramesh Undhad, a local Modi admirer, who set up the idol inside a room, held an aarti and invited villagers to come and offer prayers. Photos of the aarti travelled fast. Within days Modi himself said publicly that he was shocked by the reports and that it went against India's traditions. Undhad backed down, the idol was taken out, and the space was repurposed. Nothing about it functions as a temple now. Since then there have been occasional local reports of fans putting up a Modi photo or statue somewhere and calling it a mandir, usually for a day or two around an election. None of them turned into anything you could plan a trip around.

Why Modi killed it himself

This is the part people find surprising. A politician being worshipped is usually good for that politician, so the reflex assumption is that he quietly enjoyed it. He didn't, at least not in public. Modi called the temple shocking and said personality worship of that sort was not part of what India stands for, and once the prime minister says that, no local supporter is going to keep the doors open. There was also timing. The story landed in February 2015, the same month the BJP was wiped out in the Delhi assembly election, and the opposition was already running hard on the idea that Modi's politics revolved around one man. A literal temple with his idol in it would have been handed to them for free. Whatever the mix of principle and calculation, the outcome was the same. He shut it down faster than any court or municipal notice could have.

The temples Modi is actually connected to

Most people typing this query are not looking for the Rajkot shrine at all. They want the temples Modi has built, funded or opened, and there is a real list. The biggest is the Ram temple in Ayodhya, where he performed the bhoomi pujan in August 2020 and led the pran pratishtha of the idol in January 2024. He also drove two large corridor projects, one around Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi and one around Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain, both of which cleared and rebuilt the congested lanes around old shrines. Outside India, he opened the BAPS Hindu Mandir at Abu Mureikhah in Abu Dhabi in February 2024, on land gifted by the UAE leadership. He is also chairman of the Shree Somnath Trust in Gujarat, which is a long standing role rather than a one day ribbon cutting.

Date	Temple or project	What Modi did
5 August 2020	Ram Mandir, Ayodhya	Laid the foundation stone (bhoomi pujan)
5 November 2021	Kedarnath, Uttarakhand	Unveiled the Adi Shankaracharya samadhi and rebuilt precinct
13 December 2021	Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Varanasi	Inaugurated the corridor to the Ganga ghats
11 October 2022	Mahakal Lok, Ujjain	Inaugurated phase one of the corridor
22 January 2024	Ram Mandir, Ayodhya	Led the pran pratishtha of the Ram Lalla idol
14 February 2024	BAPS Hindu Mandir, Abu Dhabi	Inaugurated the first traditional Hindu temple in the UAE capital
19 February 2024	Kalki Dham, Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh	Laid the foundation stone

India builds temples to living people fairly often

The Rajkot shrine was odd, but not unprecedented. Fans in Telangana built a temple to Sonia Gandhi. Tamil Nadu has a long tradition of it, with shrines and idols set up for Jayalalithaa by party workers, and before her for film stars turned politicians. Kolkata has had a temple to Amitabh Bachchan, complete with a pair of his slippers as a relic. No Indian law stops any of this. There is no central Hindu authority that can issue a ban either, so what usually kills these shrines is one of two things: the subject asks for it to stop, or interest fades and the building gets used for something else. In the Modi case it was the first, and it took one statement. That is the real answer to this search. The only man who could have kept a Modi temple standing is the one who told them to take the idol out.

FAQs

Where exactly was the Modi temple built?

In Kotharia, a village just outside Rajkot city in Gujarat. It was a small room with a marble idol, set up by a local supporter named Ramesh Undhad, and it was reported in the national press in February 2015.

What did Modi say about the temple?

He said publicly that he was shocked by the news reports of a Modi temple in Rajkot and that it went against India's great traditions. The idol was removed shortly after.

Did Modi build the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya?

No. The temple is built and run by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust, using public donations, after the Supreme Court's November 2019 verdict on the disputed site. Modi laid the foundation stone in 2020 and performed the consecration ritual in January 2024.

Is it legal to build a temple to a living person in India?

There is no law banning it. What can stop it is ordinary regulation, such as land use, building permission and public order objections, and in practice most such shrines close because the person honoured asks them to.

Which temple abroad did Modi inaugurate?

The BAPS Hindu Mandir at Abu Mureikhah in Abu Dhabi, on 14 February 2024. It is the first traditional stone Hindu temple in the UAE capital, built on land gifted by the Emirati leadership.

Are there any other temples dedicated to Indian politicians?

Yes. Supporters have built shrines for Sonia Gandhi in Telangana and for Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, and there is a well known fan temple to Amitabh Bachchan in Kolkata. Most are small, privately funded and short lived.