“I have decided to contest the election not against anyone but to re-fuel the development of Gorakhpur, which has come to practically a standstill in the last 10 years,” Mahant Kailashnath told The Indian Express.

Without naming political outfits he is banking on for support, the Mahant said parties should know better how to fight fire with fire. Sources close to Kailashnath, meanwhile, spoke of his proximity to leaders like Chandraswami, late PM Chandrashekhar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu Prasad. Even the house the Mahant is living in at Kapoorthala at present was given to him by late PM Indira Gandhi, they claimed.

The another Mahant’s entry into the fray has given an interesting twist to the Lok Sabha battle in the Gorakhpur constituency, which is the birthplace of Kailashnath but which has returned Yogi Adityanath in the last three Parliamentary elections.

Thirty-seven-year-old Adityanath, a protégé of present priest of Gorakhnath Math, Mahant Advaitnath, has already been declared his successor. Known for his hard-core Hindutva politics, Adityanath has a sizeable following of his own, which is independent of his party, the BJP. His organisation, Hindu Yuva Vahini, has its own followers and in fact, Adityanath was instrumental in the defeat of BJP candidate Shiv Pratap Shukla in the last Assembly polls, when he openly backed the Hindu Maha Sabha candidate Radha Mohan Agarwal.

Though it has been a clean sweep for Adityanath in the past three Lok Sabha polls, political observers say the young MP might be in for a surprise this time around. Apart from the Kailashnath factor, the BSP is fielding Vinay Shankar Tiwari — the son of Hari Shankar Tiwari, the mafia-turned-politician in the eastern UP who enjoys considerable support among Brahmin and Dalits.

Not to be outdone, the Samajwadi Party has declared Bhojpuri film star and singer Manoj Tiwari as its candidate from Gorakhpur.