Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday blamed the State Government for spiritual leader Bhayyuji Maharaj’s death. Singh told ANI, “He (Bhayyuji Maharaj) was worried about illegal mining in the Narmada by the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-led government and was offered the post of minister to shut his mouth. He rejected the offer and had told me about it on call.”
Bhayyuji Maharaj allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a revolver at his Indore residence on Tuesday.
The spiritual leader, whose original name was Udaysingh Deshmukh, had a strong following in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and was known to have political connections with the state leaders. He announced his retirement from public life in 2016. He was associated with key leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress Party and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a long time.
Bhayyuji earned national attention in 2011 when he had a dialogue with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare on the Lokpal Bill when the latter was on an indefinite hunger strike and refused to discuss the bill with the Centre.