On a visit to Faizabad to oversee the parliamentary election preparations, senior party legislator Om Prakash Singh said the arrest of these self proclaimed leaders “will not be a plank in the coming parliamentary elections”. “Instead of the Sadhvi or Swami, we will go to the polls with other issues related to farmers, students and labourers,” said Singh.
The other locals leaders too, seem unanimous on the issue. And most seem to agree that the party should drop the matter for good.
According to BJP activist Mahant Damodar Das, the party should change its focus and concentrate on developmental issues.
“After closely observing the investigations performed by the security agencies, the BJP leadership is left with no other option but to leave this issue behind,” said Das. “We should prepare for the elections with other poll planks which could mobilse the Hindu masses to vote in favour of the party,” he added.
Pragya Singh and Swami Dayanand Pandey — arrested by the Anti Terror Squad — have a long association with leaders of the Ram temple movement and sadhus of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They are said to be regular visitors of the temple town.
Regarding Swami Dayanand’s relation with the sadhus of Ayodhya, Mahant of Saryu Kunj temple Jugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, said: “Swami Dayanand has got a strong association with Ayodhya as well as the BJP and VHP.” “Pragya Singh Thakur, a resident of Gwalior, was a famous leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad,” said the Mahant. She was very close to the former chief of Ram Janam Bhumi Nyas Paramhans Das and still has relations with the seers of the VHP camp, added Shashtri.
The rift over the issue also indicates that more than religion, the caste issue will dominate the coming polls in the state again. Observers suggest that while leaders like Rajnath Singh and L K Advani want to play the upper caste card by supporting Sadhvi and Swami — both of whom belong to the upper castes — the state leadership, dominated by the backward caste leaders like Om Prakash Singh and Kalyan Singh, oppose their moves.