Swami Paripoornananda to be Telangana's Yogi Adityanath? Rumours fly as BJP, VHP, RSS give welcome to banished seer

Swami Paripoornananda of the Shree Peetham mutt in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada, who was banished from Hyderabad in July 2018 for incendiary speeches, returned to the city to a rousing welcome from members of Hindutva organisations like the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, among others. The Telangana Police’s externment of the Swami was suspended in an interim order by the Hyderabad High Court in August. The Swami’s re-entry was marked as a significant event by the BJP and other Hindu organisations amid speculations that the saffron party might offer Paripoornananda either a Lok Sabha seat from Secunderabad or Malkajgiri, or an Assembly seat from Karwan or Chandrayangutta. According to a report by The Times of India, the seer’s externment is being used by Hindutva organisations to bring in votes from the Hindu community. [caption id=“attachment_5118881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Swami Paripoornananda. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] According to reports, BJP’s possible endorsement of the Swami could be to bring a party leader in southern India similar to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The Economic Times reported that BJP MLA NVSS Prabhakar said, “I have already told on the Floor of the Assembly that Telangana needs a leader like Yogi Adityanath. Time will decide when Swami Paripoornanda will come into politics. The decision has to be taken at the highest level.” Reports, however, said that the situation was tense when a group of people tried to organise a rally to welcome back the Swami.  The activists of various groups in support of Paripoornananda clashed with police as argument broke out when they were stopped from taking out the rally. VHP Telangana president M Rama Raju said, “K Chandrashekhar Rao’s government behaved similarly to the Nizam’s government in expelling Swami. Even though the Nizam didn’t take such drastic steps against Hindus, this government is using all its power. Police arbitrarily expelled Swami.” According to The Economic Times report, Paripoornananda has not commented on the speculations of being fielded as a BJP candidate. BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao said, “Swami Paripoornananda has a huge following among tribals. He commands respect from Hindus. Currently, no decision has been taken on his political entry. Swamy hasn’t expressed his opinion on this. It will be speculative if I speak about his political entry.” Following Paripoornananda’s alleged incendiary statements, the Telangana police had externed him for 6 months in July 2018. However, the Hyderabad high court passed an interim order suspending the externment in August. The Hyderabad police had put Paripoornananda under house arrest after he announced his intention to take up a three-day yatra, to preach on protecting the Hindu dharma. Following this, along with other controversial speeches the police booked him under the Telangana Prevention of Anti- Social and Hazardous Activities Act and ordered his externment, The Hindu reported.