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With barely a couple of months left for the Punjab elections, political events have began knocking on the doorways of non secular sects, or deras, who command affect over an enormous chunk of the citizens.
Assist – tacit or in any other case – of those deras is taken into account key to victory in numerous constituencies within the State.
Official estimates counsel there are over 15,000 small and massive deras throughout Punjab and given their affect amongst their followers are frequented by leaders from nearly all political events regardless of the controversial monitor document of a few of these deras.
A big variety of followers of those deras come from the politically important Dalit group which enjoys a 32 per cent share within the State’s inhabitants.
Not stunning then, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has been hopping from one dera to a different ever since he has taken over reins from Capt Amarinder Singh.
The CM will not be alone. On Sunday, the Dera Sacha Sauda organised a programme in 15 districts within the State. Not eager to miss out on the chance to achieve out, the SAD candidate from Mansa, Prem Arora, and Congress ex-MLA Ajit Inder Singh Mofar not solely visited the occasion however even distributed blankets among the many followers.
And no exceptions have been Cupboard Minister Vijay Inder Singla in Sangrur, Congress MLA Davinder Ghubaya in Fazilka, MLA Parminder Singh Pinky in Ferozepur and ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s OSD Sunny Brar in Faridkot attended the dera occasion within the area.
The Dera Sacha Sauda has an estimated 5 crore followers throughout the globe. Current research reveal that of this, greater than 50 lakh followers are in Punjab and Haryana. It has appreciable affect within the Malwa area of the State.
“This dera holds a big affect in at the least 40 Meeting seats of the 117 constituencies,’’ mentioned a former cupboard minister of the Congress.
Although the dera tradition has been rising in Punjab it isn’t new. The largest dera in Punjab has been the Radha Soami Satsang, which has followers all throughout the Doaba and Majha areas other than centres in additional than 90 nations. Although the deras declare that none of them helps any political occasion instantly, they do draw political leaders to their doorsteps.
Earlier than the 2017 Meeting polls, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had chartered a flight to Beas and spent an evening with former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
Apparently, with election time political events are starting to woo supporters of the Dera Sacha Sauda which has been embroiled in a number of controversies up to now together with fees of rape and homicide levelled by certainly one of his followers. A case of blasphemy was additionally registered in opposition to the pinnacle of the dera, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, for hurting Sikh sentiments and portraying himself because the Guru of the Sikh faith.
The followers of the dera are primarily these belonging to socially and economically marginal backgrounds. In the meantime, within the Doaba area, one other sect Sachkhand Ballan has a big following among the many Ravidassia group. Others embrace Dera Nurmahal, Dera Nirankari and Dera Namdhari.
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