The Election Commission’s decision on Thursday to extend the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh to December 26 has come as a major relief for the BJP.
With the earlier cutoff of December 11, the party had been facing an unexpected challenge: reaching out to sadhus and sanyasis in temple towns like Ayodhya, Varanasi, and Mathura-Vrindavan and ensuring their SIR forms were fully completed.
The most unusual obstacle involved the “mother’s name” column in the form. Since renunciates sever ties with their families and identify only their spiritual guru as father, they traditionally do not record their biological mother’s name either.
Concerned that leaving this column blank might result in the deletion of their names from the electoral rolls, local BJP workers advised sadhus to write “Janaki,” “Sita,” or “Kaushalya” — revered names linked to Lord Ram’s lineage.
Former BJP MP and VHP leader Ram Vilas Vedanti, who lives in Ayodhya, wrote “Janaki” as his mother’s name. Many others, including Digambar Akhada’s Mahamandaleshwar Prem Shankar Das, followed the same approach.
Vedanti explained,
“I believe it is mandatory to mention the mother’s name. Those who do not know their mother’s name usually write Janaki.”
Prem Shankar Das added that the tradition of virakt parampara—living detached from worldly ties—means their gurus are not family men, and giving spiritual names instead of biological ones carries symbolic and religious meaning.
A senior BJP leader in Ayodhya, requesting anonymity, said the worry was practical:
“If their forms are rejected, their names may be removed from the rolls. This would be a setback for the party because sadhus form a sizable part of our vote base in Ayodhya, many of whom were associated with the Ram temple movement.”
The BJP estimates 16,000 sadhus and sanyasis live in Ayodhya alone. The party lost the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in 2024, though it held a narrow lead of 4,667 votes in the Ayodhya Assembly segment.
In Varanasi and Mathura-Vrindavan, sadhus too are leaving the mother’s name column blank, though local leaders believe this will not automatically result in deletions, as claims and objections can be filed later.
Ayodhya ADM Anirudh Pratap Singh, the Electoral Registration Officer, said booth-level officers were personally approaching renunciates to ensure the forms are not incomplete.
“Some write Sita or Janaki as per their belief. We record whatever they tell us. We also explain that this is a legal document, so they may give names of biological parents or any name they wish.”
A Larger, Unanswered Question
While the immediate problem concerns thousands of sadhus in UP, a broader challenge remains unaddressed:
India has lakhs of sadhus, sanyasis, and Naga saints across the country. How many of them actually vote? How many are even registered? And how will this enormous and scattered population be enumerated?
Many renunciates live in isolated ashrams, forests, riverbanks, or Himalayan regions or frequently travel between religious congregations.
A significant portion of them may never turn up to fill forms, risking silent exclusion from the electoral process.
It is also unclear how many renunciates want to participate in voting at all, given their withdrawal from worldly affairs.
As electoral rolls undergo revision, these unresolved questions highlight a much deeper issue:
Is India’s democratic machinery equipped to include those who have chosen a life outside society’s formal structures?
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