The four who proposed PM Modi’s candidature: Vedic scholar to BJP-RSS old-timers

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination from Varanasi on Tuesday, intense curiosity surrounded who his four proposers would be.

The prime minister’s proposers, chosen keeping inclusivity in mind, are from the Brahmin, Other Backward Class (OBC), and Dalit communities. While three of the proposers remained in the background, astrologer and seer Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid was the only person by the PM’s side as he filed his nomination papers at the district magistrate’s office.

The PM was also accompanied by BJP’s national president JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary as well as CMs Yogi Adityanath, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Mohan Yadav and a host of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders such as Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, JanaSena Party chief Pawan Kalyan, former Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu, among others.

Here is a look at the four proposers.

Dravid (66) is a renowned scholar of the Vedas and is a resident of Varanasi’s Ram Ghat area. He was tasked with deciding the “mahurat (auspicious time)” for the Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya in January, the “bhoomi pujan (ground-breaking ceremony)” for the temple in August 2020, and the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in February 2022. According to BJP insiders, he was asked to decide the mahurat for the consecration with an idea to “bridge the gap between the Hindus of north and south India”.

Hailing from the village of Thiruvisanallur in Tamil Nadu, Dravid’s ancestors migrated to Varanasi in the 19th century. His father, Laxman Shastri, is credited with the establishment of Shri Vallabhram Shaligram Sangved Vidyalaya in Ram Ghat.

Apart from his knowledge in astrology, Dravid is known for his