A religious leader of the Swaminarayan sect has floated a political party — ‘Rashtriya Janmangal Paksh’ — to fight the policies of ruling BJP in Gujarat .
S P Swami, adviser of the disputed Swaminarayan temple at Vadtal in Amreli district of Saurashtra, has floated the party to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Amreli parliamentary constituency.
Claiming that he will contest “against BJP’s anti-religious policies,” Swami said that the main reason for his foray into politics is to ‘resolve’ the controversy re garding the appointment of the head of the Swaminarayan temple at Vadtal, an issue now in the Gujarat High Court.
“There is strong resentment against BJP’s anti-religion policies in the state,” he claimed and said he was not only sure of support of all religious heads, but also lakhs of devotees, who would vote for his party. Even though the EC has given the required recognition to float a political party, a symbol is yet to be decided upon, he said.
Sitting BJP MP from Amreli Dilip Sanghani has once again got the ticket to contest while main Opposition Congress has fielded Virjibhai Thumar,who lost to the latter in 1999, by just over 10,000 votes. The region so far has been a BJP stronghold since 1991 LS polls.