Satpal Maharaj debuts in Assembly

Sandeep Rawat

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, March 12

Being touted as chief ministerial candidate after the BJP attained majority in the Assembly, senior politician and spiritual guru Satpal Maharaj has been active in politics prior to this Assembly elections.

For the past 27 years, since his political debut in 1989 from the Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat, Satpal has been contesting Lok Sabha elections only. Since then, he has contested seven parliamentary elections, winning twice and losing five.

This is the first time Maharaj has contested the Assembly election and won in his maiden attempt, defeating his nearest Congress rival Rajpal Singh Bisht by 7,354 votes.

Interestingly, only in the 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections during his two-and-a-half decade political career, Maharaj took a break from parliamentary elections.

Maharaj joined the BJP prior to May 2014 general elections but before that he was a natural Congress choice from Pauri Garhwal.

Now in the BJP fold, he is also being touted as the BJP CM candidate.

Chaubatakhal also falls in Pauri Garhwal district where Maharaj, along with Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, holds a major political presence.

Maharaj had defected from the Congress earlier also in 1996, when he joined the All-India Congress -Tiwari party, floated by former Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

He again joined the Congress when Sonia Gandhi became the Congress president after the ouster of then party president Sita Ram Kesri.

In 2014, he again left the Congress, accusing then Chief Minister Harish Rawat of ignoring senior party leaders.

Maharaj in his maiden election suffered a defeat against then heavyweight Janata Dal candidate Chandra Mohan Singh Negi by a slender margin of 1,007 votes.

In 1991, the contest was between the BJP’s Major General BC Khanduri (retd) and Maharaj again in Pauri in which he was defeated by a margin of 25,013 votes.

But in 1996 on the ticket of the All-India Indira Congress (Tiwari), the saint-turned politician emerged victorious defeating Khanduri by 15,000 votes, which brought him into the Union Cabinet.

Satpal Maharaj first became Union Minister of State for Railways and later was appointed as Union Minister of State for Finance for a short stint, during the National Front coalition led by HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral.

In 1998 election, Maharaj suffered a crushing defeat by 1,74,947 votes, though Maharaj reduced this margin significantly to 29,682 votes in 1999 against Khanduri again.

Khanduri again won for the third time from Pauri against Satpal Maharaj in 1999 with a margin of 29,682 votes, after which he became the Union Cabinet Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

In 2014, Khanduri retained the Pauri Garhwal seat defeating arch-rival Satpal Maharaj’s protégé Lt General Tej Pal Singh Rawat by 50,000 votes. Maharaj had brought TPS Rawat to stop the Khanduri’s victory spree but the move failed.

Satpal Maharaj has also shown his political hold in Pauri Garhwal district with his close aides Mukesh Kohli (Pauri), Dr Harak Singh Rawat (Kotdwar), Duleep Singh Rawat (Lansdowne), Dhan Singh Rawat (Srinagar) also winning from his home district.