Bengali monks say, “We neither indulge in politics nor ask people to vote for any political party.”

KOLKATA: Amid a heated controversy over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s accusation that some monks from two prominent religious orders favored the Bharatiya Janata Party in elections, religious organizations on Sunday They maintained that they had always distanced themselves from politics and had never asked for votes. For candidates of any political party.

Trinamool Congress supremo Banerjee claimed at an election rally on Saturday that some monks from two prominent religious orders in West Bengal were working “under the direction of the Bharatiya Janata Party”.

Ms. Banerjee said that a section of Ramakrishna Mission’s monks asked Asansol devotees to vote in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party, while Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s monks urged TMC workers to sit at polling booths in Baharampur. He claimed that it was forbidden.

Referring to the allegations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a rally in Purulia on Sunday, said that the TMC had “crossed its limits” by spreading canards against the Ramakrishna Mission and the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, and that Banerjee would not vote He said he was “blackmailing them” to appease the banks. .

Both the Ramakrishna Mission and the Bharat Sevashram Sangha dismissed the allegations and maintained that they were solely focused on serving society.

A senior monk from the Ramakrishna Mission headquarters in Belur said, “We are saddened and distressed by this insinuation. Thousands of visitors come to our facility to pray and meditate. Everyone is the same for us.” “We seek to spread to people the eternal values ​​of religion and spiritualism. To my knowledge, neither the mission nor the monks of our order have ever asked anyone to vote for a particular political party. There is no,” he added.

A spokesperson for the Bharat Sevashram Sangha said, “From cyclones to the coronavirus, we have always come to the rescue of victims in far-flung areas. We are a 107-year-old organization. “Our monks run charity clinics, hospitals and educational facilities.” We have never been involved in politics and never will be. ”