Gurugram: Amongst its record of eight candidates introduced by the Congress for Haryana Thursday, the candidature of Satpal Brahmachari from the Sonipat parliamentary seat is producing pursuits as a result of his return to politics within the residence state after spending 20 years in lively politics in Uttarakhand.
Brahmachari, a Brahmin, has been pitted towards the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) candidate and Rai Meeting MLA Mohan Lal Badoli from the identical neighborhood.
The Congress is touting Brahmachari’s nomination from Sonipat as a masterstroke, which the social gathering leaders declare won’t solely assist the social gathering win this seat however may also profit the neighbouring seats.
Brahmachari instructed ThePrint that he was grateful to the Congress management for giving him an opportunity to contest from Sonipat and would “definitely win this seat for the party”.
Born at Gangoli village in Jind district underneath the Sonipat Lok Sabha seat, Brahmachari grew to become mayor of the Haridwar Municipal Company in 2003.
He contested the Uttarakhand elections from Haridwar in 2012 and 2022 on the Congress ticket and misplaced to BJP stalwart Madan Kaushik on each events. In keeping with the Election Fee information, in 2022, Kaushik bought 53,147 votes whereas Brahmachari tallied 37,910 votes. In 2012, Kaushik secured 42,297 votes and Brahmachari managed 33,677 votes.
Later, he was appointed president of the Haridwar Metropolis Congress in March 2023.
The Congress is contesting 9 of the ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. In keeping with the seat-sharing association, the social gathering has given Kurukshetra to the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP), which has fielded Sushil Gupta. The Congress has stored candidature to the Gurgaon seat on maintain, the place actor Raj Babbar is an aspirant.
Moreover Brahmachari, the Congress has fielded Mahendra Pratap Singh from Faridabad, Rao Dan Singh from Bhiwani-Mahindragarh, Kumari Selja from Sirsa, Varun Choudhary from Ambala, youth chief Divyanshu Budhiraja from Karnal, Deepender Singh Hooda from Rohtak, and Jai Prakash from Hisar.
In keeping with Parminder Singh Dhull, an ex-MLA from Julana that comes underneath the Sonipat seat, Brahmachari might need been lively in Uttarakhand all these years however he hails from Jind and enjoys an excellent rapport amongst individuals as a result of he heads dharamshalas in Haridwar, Gangoli and Pandu Pandara, the place 1000’s take pleasure in his hospitality.
“I don’t know much about the other assembly segments of Sonipat, but there is hardly any village in Jind, Julana, Safidon and Gohana assembly segments from where people have not been to his dharamshalas during their pilgrimages,” Dhull instructed ThePrint.
The Sonipat Lok Sabha seat contains 9 meeting segments. Of those, Jind, Safidon, and Julana fall underneath Jind district, whereas Gohana, Sonipat, Rai, Baroda, Gannaur and Kharkhoda come Sonipat district. Notably, Brahmachari hails from Jind district, whereas his rival Badoli comes from Sonipat district.
Dhull added that it was the primary time that any main political social gathering has given its ticket from Sonipat to an individual from Jind, and therefore, Brahmachari is more likely to get an enormous response from the three seats of the Jind district.
Notably, regardless of his tenure in Uttarakhand, Brahmachari on his Fb web page has an image with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the duvet picture, signalling his political allegiance.
Brahmachari’s affiliation with Hooda goes again 20 years when the Congress chief confronted a life-threatening scenario in Uttarakhand in 2003. Hooda narrowly survived when his car was engulfed by the surging waters of the Pili River, whereas his brother, Rajinder Hooda, was swept away.
Yoginder Gupta, a former journalist accompanying Hooda on the time, recounted to ThePrint that they clung to timber all through the evening to keep away from being swept away. At daybreak, Brahmachari, who was then serving as Haridwar mayor, led a rescue workforce to their assist.
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Brahmachari and his ashrams
Brahmachari’s 2022 ballot affidavit declared belongings price Rs 47 lakh, freed from liabilities. He holds a graduate (Shastri) diploma from Sampurnanand Sanskrit College in Varanasi, and has no prison document. In his affidavit, underneath the daddy’s identify part, he identifies himself as a shishya (disciple) of Radha Krishna Brahmachari.
In keeping with Brahmachari’s assistant Ritesh Sharma, the Congress candidate is mahant (head priest) of two ashrams in Haridwar— Radhakrishna Ashram and Thanaram Ashram — in addition to the Waktanand Ashram in Pandu Pindara in Jind, and Bada Mandir at his ancestral village in Gangoli.
“Thousands of people from Haryana visit these ashrams and stay there during their pilgrimage, and Brahmachariji has a personal rapport with many of them,” he added.
Former MLA Dhull additionally mentioned that 1000’s of individuals from all communities from the Jat-dominated areas of Jind, Sonipat, Rohtak and Hisar areas go to Pandu Pindara the place Brahmachari has an ashram.
In keeping with the Haryana tourism division’s web site, Pindara, also referred to as Pandu Pindara, is a sacred website located roughly 6.5 km from Jind, on the Jind-Gohana route.
The place is steeped in mythology, with tales recounting how the Pandavas performed the Pind Daan ceremony — a ceremony to honour the deceased — at Pindara throughout a Somvati Amavasya (the lunar part of the brand new moon that falls on Monday), to pay homage to kin who had been killed within the Mahabharata warfare.
Rakesh Malik, a professor of legislation on the Central College of Haryana at Mahendragarh and a local of Pandu Pindara village, instructed ThePrint that Pandu Pindara turns into a bustling hub throughout Amavasya, the brand new moon part, attracting individuals from all around the state and past caste divisions to its month-to-month honest.
The Congress ballot managers consider that Brahmachari’s nomination won’t solely give him a head begin due to his lengthy affiliation with the native individuals who have been visiting and staying at his ashrams, but in addition counter the spiritual narrative of the BJP as a result of Brahmachari himself is a socio-religious chief.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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