Amritsar7 hours ago
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Dera Beas Mukhi Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the head of Radha Soami Satsang Dera in Beas, Punjab, in New Delhi on Sunday. Modi’s meeting with the Dera Beas chief came a day before his first physical rally in Punjab elections. Deep political meaning is being extracted from this meeting. On the other hand, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met with Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh in Amritsar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening tweeted a picture of himself along with Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, from his Twitter account. With this tweet, there was a stir in the whole of Punjab. The special thing is that PM Narendra Modi is coming to Jalandhar on Monday to hold his first physical election rally.
Strong base of Dera Beas in Punjab
Radha Soami Dera has a strong base in Punjab. Apart from Punjab, there are followers of Dera in many other states also. The followers of Dera Beas have the power to influence the election results in many seats.
Dera’s political wing strong
Baba Jaimal Singh established Dera Beas in 1891. The Dera is connected at the grassroots level and has remained away from politics till now. However, the political wing of the dera is strong. There is never open talk of politics and no announcements are made. Former state president of Congress Mohinder Singh KP is also a follower of Dera Beas. Charanjit Singh Channi has also gone to Dera Beas twice after becoming the Chief Minister. Akali leader Bikram Majithia also keeps coming and going there.
Dera effect on 94 out of 117 seats
There is no official data on Deras operating in Punjab, but according to an estimate, there are 9,000 Sikh and 12,000 non-Sikh Deras in Punjab. Out of these, there are about 300 dera chiefs who have influence in Punjab as well as in Haryana. Out of these, there are 12 deras which have more than one lakh followers. Dera Beas is one of them.
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