By D N Singh
It is not very new that, politicians run to religious figures or ‘Babas’ to help them railroad their political future in the coming polls instead to poll survey agencies or sephologists for the predictions on their future.
It has happened this time as both the BJP and the Congress have started queuing before the in-focus baba Dhirendra Krshan Sashtri for guidance. The ‘baba’ had already made a few alluring fiture-tellings making himself more in demand. Shashtri who is usually known for his Hindutva leaning this time has drawn both the above rival parties.
Hindi news channels have already hastened to bake some news cakes out of the visits. These ‘babas’ know well how to entice them with their path-finding styles and remain so revered that, the fees or (chadhawa) offerings reduce to nothing before a word for victory of the foretellers like Shashtri.
Madhya Pradesh former CM, Kamal Nath was also seen meeting the self-styled God man and there in the queue is the incumbent chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who is scheduled to be at the feet of the young Baba shortly.
Congress has a reason and the need for the BJP is no less as they have to combat an anti-incumbency factor So they have obviously started courting such colourfully attired Godmen for the 2024 polls .
But it’s hard to ignore the 26-year-old self-styled chief priest of Madhya Pradesh’s Bageshwar Dham temple, devoted to Lord Hanuman, for yet another reason.
Now some leaders from the Congress like Kamal Nath, who has tried to project himself as a devoted Hindu, many believe this to be an attempt to not land in an awkward position on the topic of Hindutva. For the BJP, it is business as usual.
It all the same, but in states like Odisha, the leaders including the chief ministers drive to Puri to the blessings of the presiding deity Lord Jagannath. However, in earliertimes it had been seen that, some leaders had courted some self-styled cult figures like Baba Raul or the Baba in a place called Jheenti to seek the blessings.
However, so far there is no record of the present chief minister Naveen Patnaik having courted any such cult figure.
For such Babas, shooting into the fame takes little time as poll analysts take years and years to make a footprint. For example Shashtri is now a talking point in Maharshtra, Chhattishgarh and some parts of the North.
