Bhopal: The Congress has received a shot in the arm just ahead of the Madhya Pradesh assembly election on November 28 as hundreds of seers announced their support to the grand old party.
As hundreds of seers gathered on the banks of the Narmada River on Friday for the ‘Narmade Sansad’, they not only announced that they would give five years to the Congress but also criticised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for backtracking on his promises.
‘Computer Baba’, who recently resigned as a minister of state, claimed that the community had decided to go with the Congress. His sentiment was echoed by Mahamandleshwar Vairagyanand Giri, who said seers had been supporting the BJP for years “but this time, we will stand with the Congress”.
On Thursday, ‘Computer Baba’ had organised a ‘Kalash Yatra’ in Jabalpur and performed a ‘Parivartan Yagna’ with hundreds of seers to show displeasure with the BJP government.
Seer Saraswatinand said politicians were apprehensive of the community’s entry into politics. “We won’t back a government which is anti-religion,” he added.
Accusing the Shivraj Chouhan government of not fulfilling the promise of building gaushalas, the seers said the state used the SC/ST Act to create a rift in society. “We preach the concept of global village while the government is dividing us on caste lines,” they alleged.
The saffron party, however, sought to play down the protests. BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal called ‘Computer Baba’ a saint driven by personal ambitions. “He was earlier thrown out of the Akahara Parishad for violation of their code of conduct,” he said, adding that the former minister and his associates did not represent the community of seers.
Congress spokesperson Ravi Saxena backed the seers, saying they were anguished as there have been “repeated attacks on math-mandir land from the land mafia in Shivraj Chouhan rule”.
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