Flying high on Hindutva: Former 'cow' minister, temple crusader among 4 priests fielded by BJP elected to Rajasthan Assembly

Jaipur: Four Hindu priests have been elected to the Rajasthan Assembly in this election after being fielded by the BJP which wooed voters on the Hindutva plank, vociferously raising issues of alleged minority appeasement.

Among the four priests turned politicians, Baba Balaknath, who is an MP from Alwar and has won from the hotly-contested Tijara seat, has often courted controversies with his remarks, while Balmukund Acharya, elected from Hawa Mahal, came into limelight after he launched a campaign against the 'demolition' of temples in the area.

On Monday, a video appeared online where Balmukund, fresh from his victory, is purportedly giving directions to an official on the phone to remove roadside shops selling non-vegetarian food at the Chandi Ki Taksal area in his constituency.

"Can non-veg be sold in the open on the road? Answer in yes or no. Are you endorsing them? Remove the roadside shops selling non-vegetarian at Chandi Ki Taksal area. Check their licences. I will take a report from you in the evening. Do I have to come to you to collect the report or you will come?" he said.

"The street vendors making non-veg seen on roadsides should not be seen from immediate effect. I will take a report from you in the evening," he is heard saying on the phone.

Balmukund defeated Congress' R R Tiwari by a narrow margin of 914 votes in the Hawa Mahal constituency which has a sizeable Muslim electorate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had done a road show in the constituency during the campaigning. The seer, during his campaign, had claimed that scores of temples in the Hawa Mahal area were demolished as a part of a conspiracy and had assured the people that if voted to power, these would be rebuilt.

Otaram Dewasi, mahant of Mundara Mata Temple, was the first minister for gopalan (cow husbandry) in the previous BJP government led by Vasundhara Raje but lost in the 2018 elections. He is now elected from Sirohi. The other three priests are new to the Assembly.

Balaknath, 39, who belongs to the same Nath sect that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath represents, has emerged as a strong leader after his victory in Tijara, a seat the BJP had won only once between the first election in 1951 and 2018.

The Election Commission had served a notice to Balaknath over his statement where he compared the assembly elections to an India-Pakistan match, though he later clarified that he was “encouraging” people to turn out in maximum numbers to increase the voting percentage.

"The Muslims here are being dominated. There are Muslims of extremist mindset here. They have dominated everyone here. They are the same extremists who are dominating the whole Muslim community and going against their will. The situation today in Tijara is bad because of them.

'Their thought process is anti-national and is aimed at stopping the country's development... the people of Tijara will answer them,” Balaknath had told PTI ahead of voting.

Balaknath won by a margin of 6,173 votes, defeating Congress' Imran Khan who got 1,04,036 votes. The seat witnessed the second-highest polling percentage at 86.11.

The remote Pokaran constituency of the desert state saw the highest polling percentage as BJP's Swami Pratap Puri, head of the Taratara Math in Barmer, crossed swords with Congress' Saleh Mohammad, son of a Muslim religious leader Ghazi Fakeer.

Puri's supporters said the seer avenged his defeat in 2018 assembly polls where he had lost by 872 votes. This time the Hindu leader won by a margin of 35,427 votes.

Dewasi defeated his closest rival, outgoing CM Ashok Gehlot's OSD Sanyam Lodha, who had fought as an independent, by 35,805 votes.

During the 2023 Assembly poll campaign, the BJP did not field any Muslim candidate and leaders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the various chief ministers launched a voluble onslaught on issues of the brutal murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur by radical Islamists, riots in several cities and the alleged restrictions during Hindu festivals.

The BJP has won 115 seats and Congress 69 seats in the 2023 Assembly polls. Three seats were won by Bharat Adivasi Party, two by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one each by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Rashtriya Lok Tantrik Party (RLTP) and eight independent candidates.

Elections were not held on one seat out of 200 due to the demise of the Congress candidate from the Karanpur constituency.