Sadhu-MPs are now fighting for political survival in UP

LUCKNOW, AUG 1: For years they literally carried the BJP's electoral fortunes on their shoulders but with the Ayodhya temple issue being ...

LUCKNOW, AUG 1: For years they literally carried the BJP’s electoral fortunes on their shoulders but with the Ayodhya temple issue being on the backburner by the party, the sadhus-turned-MPs are now fighting for political survival.

At least six Lok Sabha seats in the state have outgoing MPs of the saffron brigade who could make it to the Parliament only because they were directly or indirectly involved in the BJP-backed movement for“liberation of the Ayodhya shrine”. Now with the temple movement virtually being on the moribund stage and the BJP itself not willing to openly support the issue, the MP-sadhus are a worried lot.

This explains why almost all of them are pleading with the party’s parliamentary board to change their constituencies for the coming electoral battle as they feel a new place might fetch them gullible voters who can be swayed again by the kamandal, the USP of the BJP during the last three elections in Uttar Pradesh.

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Some of these MPs have are directly responsible for alienatingthemselves from their respective constituencies.

The BJP think tank, however,is ill at ease over these candidates who cannot be neglected during distribution of tickets. However, fielding them again from the same constituency may cost the party dearly.

One such case is that of Swami Ram Vilas Vedanti who prefers a new constituency in each election. This time also he is trying to shift from Pratapgarh represented by him in the dissolved Lok Sabha. He contested the 1996 polls from Machlishahr and came to Pratapgarh in 1998 and is again planning to shift to other another “safe place” in the coming battle of the ballot.

Another sadhu-turned-MP Swami Satchidanand Sakshi who has been the party MP from Farrukhabad twice consecutively is determined not to contest from there for the third time because of protests within the BJP ranks. Sakshi is alleged to have been indirectly involved in the brutal murder of Brahma Dutt Dwivedi, a prominent BJP legislator from Farrukhabad. This earned him much wrath among hisown partymen locally. However, his proximity with Kalyan Singh will ensure a ticket for him this time also but if he gets contests from Farrukhabad for the third time, Sakshi will have to face challenges from within and outside.