SADHUS IN OFFICE

In 1957, the first election after the state of Madhya Pradesh was formed, the Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad, a party formed in 1948 by Swami Karpatri, a Hindu ascetic, won 6 of the 288 Assembly seats. It had earlier won 3 Lok Sabha seats in 1952.

Guru Agam Dass, a religious leader of the Satnami tradition, was elected to the first Lok Sabha in 1951-52, on a Congress ticket, from Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh. After his death in 1955, his widow Mini Mata, a religious leader and a Dalit, won the by-election. She also served as general secretary of the state Congress committee.

Religious  leader Pawan Diwan was a Congress MP and was appointed jail minister in 1977. Diwan joined the

BJP in 2004. He is known to have said, “I am an ideal saint and an ideal politician”.

In 2003, Uma Bharti (left), a sanyasin,  became the BJP chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. She wore her traditional saffron robe at her swearing in, which was attended by her guru, Sri Vishwesha Theertha Swami of Udupi and about 50 sadhus and sanyasins seated in the first row. Bharti is now union minister for drinking water and sanitation. In 2016, Swami Akhileshwaranand Girl was given an MoS-level berth as chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Gau Samvardhan Board. He made headlines soon after, saying the next world war would be fought over the cow. Last week, he was elevated to cabinet rank.

In April this year, five Hindu religious

 leaders were offered minister-of-state rank in the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government. Narmadanand Maharaj, Hariharanand Maharaj, Computer Baba, Bhaiyyu Maharaj and Pandit Yogendra Mahant were appointed to a committee for the conservation of the Narmada river. Hariharanand Maharaj and Bhaiyyu Maharaj declined the posts.