Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's Dera Sacha Sauda has decided to throw its weight behind the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana. As soon as the election campaign ended on Friday, the Dera appointed a 15-member committee for poll duty. All 10 constituencies in Haryana — Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Hisar, Karnal, Sonipat, Rohtak, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, and Faridabad — will go to polls on Saturday, May 25.
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was found guilty in a case of rape, after which he was awarded 20 years in jail. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was found guilty of raping two women by a special CBI court in Haryana's Panchkula in 2017. He was awarded a 20-year jail term. However, he received at least nine paroles in the last four years, the latest of which was granted in January 2024 for 50 days.
Following an objection to the frequent paroles, especially before elections, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the government to refrain from granting further paroles to the rape convict without the court's order.
Haryana Lok Sabha Elections
The Lok Sabha Elections in Haryana are expected to be a two-cornered contest between the BJP and the Congress on the 10 seats of Haryana. The BJP has fielded its candidates on all 10 seats without any alliance. The Opposition, on the other hand, is fighting the polls under the banner of the I.N.D.I.A bloc. While the Congress has fielded candidates from nine seats, the Aam Aadmi Party is seeking to wrest one constituency.
The AAP has secured the I.N.D.I.A bloc's approval to contest the Kurukshetra seat, which is being contested by the BJP's Naveen Jindal, a Congress turncoat. AAP's Sushil Gupta is his challenger.
The Dera Sacha Sauda's support to the BJP could be a big deal in the elections considering the sect's huge following in Haryana.