Mahant loses PSO after heated exchange with Ayodhya DM over BJP poll defeat

A police security gunner provided to Mahant Raju Das, head priest of the revered Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya, was withdrawn after he had a heated exchange Friday night with the District Magistrate over the BJP’s electoral defeat in the temple town parliamentary constituency of Faizabad.

Mahant Das showed up at a review meeting called by UP cabinet ministers Surya Pratap Shahi and Jaiveer Singh and blamed the district administration’s recent actions for the BJP’s defeat in Faizabad. This led to an argument with District Magistrate Nitish Kumar.

On Saturday, Mahant Das said he told people at the meeting that party workers alone should not be held responsible for the defeat of the BJP – its two-term MP Lallu Singh lost to SP’s Awadhesh Prasad – because the district administration was equally at fault.

According to the Mahant, the district administration served notices to the people of Ayodhya, directing them to vacate properties (for redevelopment works), just before the elections and this to anger against the ruling party.

“It was around 11 pm Friday when I had an argument with the DM who, along with the SSP, left the meeting immediately. I stepped out after two minutes, only to find that the police gunner for my security was no longer there. I was told that he had been called back immediately,” Mahant Das told The Indian Express.

“I am not going to write to any senior authority in this regard. Santo ki sarkar me santo ka apmaan ho raha hai (sants are being humiliated in the government of sants),” he said.

Reached for comment, District Magistrate Kumar told The Indian Express: “A process was already underway for the withdrawal of his three police gunners ever since we learnt that three criminal cases were lodged against Raju