LS vows for Rohtak spiritual gurus

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 24

Two spiritual gurus from Rohtak — Mahant Balaknath and Swami Sumedhnand Saraswati — have made it to the Lok Sabha on the BJP ticket from Rajasthan.

Mahant Balaknath (35), who heads Baba Mast Nath Matth in Rohtak, is also the Chancellor of Baba Mast Nath University, Rohtak. He was fielded from Alwar constituency in Rajasthan, where he defeated Bhanwar Jitendra Singh of the Congress by a margin of 3,29,971 votes.

In July 2016, Mahant Chand Nath, the former head of Baba Mast Nath Matth, had declared Balaknath as his successor at a ceremony attended by Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and yoga guru Ramdev.

Interestingly, the Alwar seat was earlier represented by Mahant Chand Nath. Hence, apart from becoming the spiritual successor of Mahant Chand Nath, Mahant Balaknath has become his political successor as well.

Swami Saraswati (67), who belongs to Baland village in Rohtak, has been elected MP from Sikar, also in Rajasthan, for the second consecutive time. This time, he defeated Subhash Maharia of the Congress by 2,97,156 votes.

A postgraduate in Sanskrit, he left home in 1974 and joined the Arya Samaj. He founded Vedic Ashram and organised campaigns for cow protection and education of cultural traditions and Vedas before joining politics.