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Akhada Parishad meeting on Oct 25, may elect new president
In the meeting, whoever gets backing of two-third members of the 26-member Akhada Parishad would be elected as its new president.
PRAYAGRAJ: The Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP)—the powerful apex decision-making body of the country’s 13 recognised Hindu monastic orders—may elect its new president on October 25.
A meeting of the ABAP had been convened on Shri Panchayati Akhada Niranjani premises in Daraganj locality by the body’s general secretary Mahant Hari Giri to discuss the issue, informed ABAP office-bearers.
Head of the Baghambari Gaddi Math Mahant Narendra Giri, who had been serving on the post since 2014, was found dead in a room of the Math on September 20 following an alleged suicide, leaving the post vacant.
The meeting has been convened at a time when the Akhadas are keen to get necessary preparations underway for the Kumbh-2025 to be held in Prayagraj and get set for the important meeting of the body that takes decisions on the mega religious fair three years before its formal starts.
Usually this meeting follows a meeting with the state chief minister in which various proposals passed by the ABAP regarding Kumbh are put before him for implementation.
“The meeting of the Akhada Parishad has been convened on October 25. The names put forth for appointment as the next president of the Akhada Parishad would be discussed in it. Whoever gets backing of two-third members of the 26-member Parishad would be elected as its new president,” said Mahant Hari Giri, who is also the chief patron of Juna Akhada..
The body has two representatives each from the 13 recognised Akhadas of the country.
Senior seers shared that with just over three years remaining for Kumbh-2025, electing a new ABAO president was a top priority for the Akhadas.
They shared that as per the traditions followed till now, whichever monastic order’s office -bearer passes away in harness, the name proposed by it is appointed to the post till the end of the five-year tenure.
Mahant Narendra Giri of Niranjani Akhada was first elected to the post in 2014 and was then re-elected for another five years at Haridwar in October 2019. This, seers said, could mean that a senior saint of Niranjani Akhada whose name was proposed by the monastic order could be elected to the top post of ABAP till 2025.
