Rajasthan: Who is Balak Nath, among BJP’s top contenders for CM post?

As the BJP looked set to wrest the Rajasthan Assembly from the Congress, a major question on the minds of people was who would be the saffron party’s chief ministerial candidate. As the party remained tight-lipped, speculations were rife that parliamentarian Mahant Balak Nath was among the top contenders.

Balak Nath, the Lok Sabha MP from Alwar, was leading from the Tijara constituency by 13,721 votes around 2 pm on Sunday (December 3). While Balak Nath had got 85,991 votes, nearest contestant, Imran Khan of the Congress, had 72,270 votes. Tijara is a part of the Alwar Lok Sabha segment.

Who is Mahant Balak Nath?

This “Yogi of Rajasthan”, as Balak Nath is popularly called, is only 39 years old and is known for his strong remarks. In the run-up to the polls, he had termed the Tijara contest against Khas as an “India-Pakistan match”, against “Talibani” forces which were “spreading crime and hindering development”.

He is well-known as the head of the Baba Mastnath Math in Rohtak, Haryana. He is the eighth mahant of the Math. It is the biggest Math of the Nath sect and it runs educational institutions and hospitals.

Born in a Yadav family in Alwar’s Kohrana village on April 16, 1984, Balak Nath is the only child of his parents. He left home at the age of six to become a monk. He wears saffron robes and is popular among the masses as a firebrand leader of the BJP.

He reportedly studied till Class 12. In the affidavit he filed for the polls, he has claimed that he has around Rs 14 lakh in his bank account.

The “Yogi of Rajasthan”

Balak Nath, who refers to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as his “elder brother”, portrays himself as the “Yogi of Rajasthan”. Balak Nath is also known to have used the imagery of bulldozers, which is associated with Adityanath in UP.

Adityanath, on his part, accompanied Balak Nath when he filed his nomination papers and campaigned for him. They are from the same Nath sect.

About the Tijara seat

The Tijara seat is in the Muslim-dominated Mewat region of Rajasthan, bordering Haryana.

Tijara has 2.61 lakh voters, of which about a lakh are Muslims.