With just a month left for the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana and Punjab where voting is scheduled for May 12 and May 19 respectively, the political wing of Dera Sacha Sauda has started getting feedback from followers on which political party to support. The process has been initiated even though the dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim is serving a sentence for rape and murder in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak.
Highly placed sources in the dera said its political wing is meeting followers known as 'Premis' in this regard and will take a decision in the coming days. For the last few days, messages are being sent to followers to attend the nam charcha at the nam charcha ghar (prayer hall) of the dera.
It is learnt that the nam charchas were first held at the block level centres of the dera in both Punjab and Haryana to get feedback from followers and on Sunday for the first time it was held at the district level in Patiala, Fategarh Sahib, Sangrur, Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur in Punjab and in a few districts of Haryana. Followers have been told to now regularly attend the nam charchas every Sunday.
"This was the first phase to take feedback from the 'Premis'. After a few days again feedback will be taken from them and then accordingly the 45-member political committee of the dera will take a decision on whether to support any political party in these elections or not. If at all any party has to be supported, it will also be decided which party it should be or whether the 'premis' can vote of their own free will,’’ said an insider.
Sources said that once this committee takes a decision on which political party to support, it will be conveyed to Ram Rahim in jail. In the 2014 parliamentary elections and Haryana assembly poll the same year, the dera supported the BJP and the party got 47 seats out of 90 assembly and won seven Lok Sabha seats in the state. In the 2017 Punjab assembly elections, the dera supported the SAD-BJP alliance. In the 2009 elections, it supported the Congress.
Political experts say that it has to be seen if followers respect the diktat as for the first time during the elections Gurmeet Ram Rahim is behind bars and may not be able to exert influence over his followers, many of whom left the dera after his arrest and the violence in Panchkula in which more than forty people died and scores were injured.
Leaders across party lines used to make a beeline to the dera chief in every election seeking his
'blessings' but this time political parties are worried about where this 'silent vote' will go. Both Punjab Congress President Sunil Jakhar and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal have said no to dera votes.
But leaders of the BJP, Congress and SAD are not averse to these votes as there are more than 50 lakh dera
followers in both Punjab and Haryana out of five crore followers worldwide and more than half the members of DSS are reportedly eligible to exercise their franchise. With more than 35 lakh supporters in Punjab, mostly dalits, the dera holds a significant influence over 40 assembly constituencies in a total of 67 constituencies in the Malwa region.
The dera, together with several other such deras, generally votes en bloc. The state has the highest percentage of dalits in the country as they comprise more than 31 per cent of the population.