A vertical split has taken place in the Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad with a group of Hindu saints here electing its new office-bearers in Allahabad on Friday.
Supporters of Mahant Gyan Das, who is the parishad head, boycotted the meeting.
“The meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad has unanimously elected Balwant Singh of the Nirmal Akhara as its president and Shankaranand Giri of the Anand Akhara as its general secretary,” Mr Ramanand Puri, the spokesman of the parishad, told reporters.
Mr Puri, who belongs to Niranjani Akhara and is the head priest of Mansa Devi Temple Trust at Hardwar, said all the 13 akharas, which are part of the parishad, except the Juna and the Avahan Akharas, had taken part in Friday’s meeting.
He, however, said non-participation of the two akharas will have no bearing upon the acceptability of the new office-bearers as the “quorum required to grant legitimacy to the exercise was very much in place”.
However, sources in Akhara Parishad said the election of new office-bearers may spell trouble in the wake of stiff opposition from supporters of the outgoing president Mahant Gyan Das who will now be holding a meeting at Haridwar to mobilise saints against the “coup”.
Talking to this correspondent on Saturday, a spokesman of Mahant Gyan Das said that the elections were held in alleged contravention of the traditions of the parishad, which entail that the incumbent president and secretary-general must be present during the process of electing new office-bearers.
Mahant Gyan Das, also the head priest of Hanuman Garhi temple at Ayodhya, was a plaintiff in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit that was decided on September 30 by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court.
He has been supporting another plaintiff, Mohammed Hashim Ansari, for an out-of-court settlement between the two parties and it is this that has reportedly irked the other akharas that are opposed to the construction of mosque “anywhere near the temple site”.