In June last year, Narendra Modi travelled to Gorakhpur to unveil a statue of Mahant Avaidyanath, whom he had known long before the prime minister had entered politics. The mahant (chief priest) of the Gorakhnath Math was MP from Gorakhpur four times and MLA from Maniram five times. Avaidyanath hailed from Kandi village, which is a few kilometres from Yogi Adityanath’s native village Panchur.
Yogi in his childhood
Yogi had come under the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh while in college and participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He attended some programmes of Mahant Avaidyanath.
A little known fact is that Yogi and Mahant Avaidyanath are blood relatives. The mahant is the son of Yogi’s grandfather’s sister. Avaidyanath, born as Kirpal Bisht, left home after his parents died when he was young. No one to look after him, he joined Mahant Digvijaynath at Gorakhpur. Little was known of him, among his relatives or villagers, after he became an ascetic. It was only after he was elected MLA from Maniram that people from his area came to know that he was from Kandi village. Some of them went to him and got Rs 40,000 to start water supply in the area. That was a princely sum 40 years ago.
Mahant Avaidyanath died at the age of 93, in 2014. By that time Yogi had had four terms as MP. Yogi’s father has not visited the Gorakhpur Math since 1994, when he went there with his wife to meet his son after he became an ascetic. They did not even attend his oath-taking as chief minister.
The parents and some of the siblings have met him at his Delhi residence. “Every time we go, we take two kilograms of barfi and some dal,” said his father, Anand Singh. “Sometimes he calls me pitaji; I feel happy. I call him Mahant ji.”
