Hooda’s ‘saviour’ to ‘Congress’s Yogi’, Haridwar seer creates ripples in Sonipat, taps into ‘anti-incumbency’

On a hot day last week, a catchy tune with Haryanvi lyrics, “Banegi ik tarfa sarkar… jeetke aave Brahamchari (a government will be formed decisively… Brahamchari will emerge victorious)”, blares through Mahmudpur village in the Sonipat Lok Sabha constituency in Haryana as many prepare to welcome Congress candidate Satpal Brahamchari.

Moments later, Brahamchari, 55, arrives there, waving at the crowd while sitting on a decorated tractor arranged by the villagers. Brahamchari looks a little tired at this tenth event of his day-long canvassing, but still listens patiently to the welcome speeches made by some locals, even as he is garlanded.

When his turn comes to address the gathering, he took less than two minutes. “On May 25, go to your nearest polling booth and bring glory to Congress and Satpal Brahamchari,” he says.

Haryana Congress stalwart and ex-chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has played a key role in the party’s move to field Brahamchari from the Jat-dominated constituency, where the former had lost to the BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik by about 1.64 lakh votes in the 2019 polls.

In his election affidavit, Brahamchari mentions “spiritual leader” as his primary occupation. He is known as the “Congress party’s Yogi” and addressed as “Maharaj ji” during his public meetings.

Brahamchari’s association with Hooda goes back to 2003, when the latter met with an accident in Uttarakhand. The vehicle in which he was riding along with his brother Rajinder and a former journalist Yoginder Gupta crashed into the Pili river. While Rajinder was killed in the mishap, Hooda and Gupta clung to trees through the night to avoid being swept away by the river water. It was Brahamchari who had then led a team to rescue them.

A soft-spoken