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Mahant Ravindra Puri elected new Akhada Parishad president
Mahant Ravindra Puri’s election as new Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad president came in the wake of a split in the body, with only seven of the 13 bodies attending the meeting.
The secretary of Shri Panchayati Akhara Niranjani (or simply, the Niranjani Akhara), Mahant Ravindra Puri, was elected the new president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex religious body of 13 recognised monastic Hindu orders of the country, on Monday.
His election came in the wake of a split in the body, with only seven of the 13 bodies attending the meeting. Interestingly, last week, seven akharas met and chose their own head of ABAP (the math doesn’t add up because the Nirmal Akhara attended both meetings).
The seven Akharas that met on Monday are: Juna, Niranjani, Nirmal, Agni, Avahan, Anand and Naya Udasin. The seven that met last week (on October 21) are: Nirmohi, Nirmal, Digamber, Mahanirvani, Atal, Bada Udasin, and Nirvan.
Puri was elected in a meeting of seers convened by Akhara Parishad general secretary Mahant Hari Giri, also the chief patron of Juna Akhara. He will replace Mahant Narendra Giri who died by suicide on September 20. He will remain ABAP president till 2025, the original length of Giri’s tenure.
Puri also claimed to have written support of the Nirmohi Akhara, which, like Nirmal Akhara, is part of the other group too.
Nirmohi Akhara couldn’t be reached for a comment.
On October 21, the seven akharas that met elected another Ravindra Puri, a Mahant of Mahanirvani Akhara (Mahanirvani) , as president of ABAP.
A new executive committee was also formed The head of the Nirmohi Akhara, Shri Mahant Rajendra Das, was elected general secretary.
Along with them, Damodar Das Maharaj was appointed as vice-president, Jaswinder Singh Shastri as treasurer, Ram Kishore Das Maharaj as secretary, Gaurishankar Das Maharaj as spokesperson and Dharamdas Maharaj and Maheshwar Das as patrons.
Monday’s meeting was attended by akharas following the ‘Shaiva’ (sannyasin) tradition, including Juna Akhara (the largest in terms of number of seers as members).
“I am happy that the seers have given me the responsibility of leading them and I will not disappoint them. There were representatives from seven akharas who have voted for me and I also have the support letter from one more Akhara. As a result, I have support of eight akharas. There will be efforts from my side to bring the others back in to the fold”, said Niranjani Akhara’s Ravindra Puri after being elected on Monday.
Mahanirnavi’s Ravindra Puri could not be reached for comments. However, general secretary of the second faction of the ABAP, Mahant Rajendra Das said, “The election to the Akhara Parishad was held on October 21. The seers of all the akharas have got representation in the meeting and the election conducted in Shree Niranjani Akhara, Prayagraj (on Monday) is illegal and has no recognition”.
As per the practice, two members from each of the 13 akharas are members of ABAP and its office bearers are elected from among them.
ABAP general secretary Mahant Hari Giri of Juna Akhara, dubbed the Haridwar election a malicious attempt to divide the ABAP and refused to recognise any of the members elected then.
“I had already called for a meeting of ABAP on October 25, and if these akharas had any intention to prove their majority, they should have attended this meeting and got their leader elected. After all, ABAP elects its office bearers in a democratic way. So where is the need to shy away from contesting the elections? “
The meeting of ABAP is usually held only when the serving general secretary calls for it. “Monday’s meeting was held with a single point agenda: To elect the new ABAP president. A meeting of the Akhada Parishad will now be called again after three months to select the rest of the executive members,” Mahant Hari Giri said.
