For the BJP, the Election Commission’s (EC) decision on Thursday to extend the enumeration deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh to December 26 will come as a relief. With the previous deadline of December 11 approaching, the ruling party had run into a peculiar problem over the past week: it was struggling to reach out to sadhus and sanyasis in temple towns such as Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan, and Ayodhya and get them to fill out completed SIR forms.
In Ayodhya, former BJP MP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ram Vilas Vedanti put down “Janaki”, another name for Lord Ram’s wife Sita, as his mother’s name in the form. Vedanti is among several sadhus, including Digambar Akhada’s Mahamandaleshwar Prem Shankar Das, who have mentioned Janaki, Sita, or Kaushalya (Lord Ram’s mother) as their mother’s name.
Local BJP leaders said they had advised the sadhus and sanyasis to do so because of concern that their names could be struck off the electoral roll if they left the column for mother’s name blank. Sadhus and sanyasis identify their spiritual guru as their father on official IDs since they have renounced all worldly attachments. They do not mention their mother’s name on official documents, as their gurus have also given up family life.
“I believe it is mandatory to mention the mother’s name. I have written Janaki … those who do not know the name of their mother, they usually write Janaki,” Vedanti, who lives at Hindu Dham in Ayodhya, told The Indian Express.
“I follow virakt parampara (tradition of remaining unattached). My guru was also not a grihastha (family man). So, I have written Janaki as my mother’s name. There is also a spiritual reason behind it. There should be no objection to it,” said Prem Shankar Das.
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“We were told of a possibility of the sadhus’ enumeration form getting rejected if the column for a basic detail such as mother’s name was left blank,” said a senior BJP leader in Ayodhya who did not wish to be named. “The deletion of their names from the rolls can lead to problems for the party, as sadhus form a sizable chunk of our vote bank in Ayodhya. Most of them or their gurus were associated with the Ram temple movement and have their ashrams here.”
The party estimates there are 16,000 sadhus and sanyasis in Ayodhya. The party lost the Faizabad constituency, of which Ayodhya is a part, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Even in that defeat, which left the party red-faced as it came months after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir, the Ayodhya Assembly segment was the sole bright spot for the BJP as it had a lead of 4,667 votes there.
“Because of apprehension that incomplete forms may be rejected, we appealed to the sadhus and sanyasis to write Janaki or any other revered name belonging to their respective religious tradition in the mother’s name column. Many of them have accepted our suggestion,” said Vijay Pratap Singh, the BJP general secretary for Awadh.
Sadhus in Varanasi and Mathura-Vrindavan are also leaving the mother’s name column blank, but local BJP leaders said they do not expect it to result in deletions from electoral rolls. “But if it happens, they can file claims and objections after publication of the draft electoral roll,” said a leader in Vrindavan.
Ayodhya Additional District Magistrate Anirudh Pratap Singh, the electoral registration officer or ERO, said in the cases of renunciates, BLOs were reaching out to them to fill out their forms and not leave anything blank.
“At some places, sadhus are writing Sita or Janaki as their mother’s name as per their religious belief. We are contacting them and writing down whatever they are telling us. We are asking them that it is a legal document and hence they can tell names of their biological parents too, or what they wish to,” he said, adding that while he was not sure how this problem was dealt with in previous SIRs, electoral procedures like this tend not to change. The Indian Express also reached out to UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, but he was not available for comment.
Sadhus on the move
BJP workers said another challenge was locating the sadhus and sanyasis at the addresses cited on their official documents and getting them to fill the forms in time. Though these forms can also be submitted online, many sadhus are not adept at using technology, and the party, too, has instructed its workers to visit them at their addresses and complete the paperwork.
“All those sadhus who are not present here at their registered address because of pilgrimage or for performing religious rituals in different parts of the country, and are unable to submit their enumeration forms, their names could get deleted,” said a leader in Vrindavan.
He said 167 enumeration forms were delivered to the Sudama Kuti Ashram in Vrindavan, but only 43 had been completely filled out and returned. “The other voters are not reachable because they are on tour. If their names get deleted, it could be a problem for the party,” he said.
Prem Shankar Das said there were 12 voters at his ashram, “Siddhapeeth Ramdham” in Ayodhya, but half of them were travelling for religious programmes. “The Booth Level Officer has not provided their enumeration forms yet. Once I receive their forms, I will contact them and ask them to come back and fill them out,” he said.
Anirudh Singh said the administration would keep contacting the heads of temples and ashrams that the travelling sadhus belong to and ensure they submit a fully completed form within the deadline.