A Madhya Pradesh seer’s plan to take ‘samadhi’ (entombment) at 2.11 p.m. on Sunday following a failed Lok Sabha poll prediction was thwarted by the police in Bhopal.
After his prediction of Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s victory from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat fell flat, Baba Vairagyanand Giri had written, through a lawyer, to Bhopal Collector Tarun Kumar Pithode to allow him to take ‘samadhi’.
Mr. Pithode rejected the request and asked the police to ensure that nothing untoward took place.
The seer had taken the ‘samadhi’ vow during a yagna. Mr. Singh, a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and multiple-time MP, was defeated by BJP’s Pragya Singh Thakur by over 3.64 lakh votes.
The seer, who returned from the Kamakhya temple in Assam, could not venture out of his hotel premises due to the restraining presence of the police, his advocate Majid Ali told PTI. “I want to say publicly that the yagna has failed. I respect the mandate of the people. I want to take ‘samadhi’ as I could not pull off a victory for Digvijaya Singh using yagna and other traditional means,” he told reporters, claiming that he would “take samadhi for sure”.
Incidentally, the seer, accused by his Niranjani Akhada of indulging in politics after predicting a win for Mr. Singh, was expelled from the order.