Hyderabad: Swami Paripoornand, a controversial pontiff many compare to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his saffron robes, joined the BJP on Friday.
Paripoornand, head of Sree Peetham of Kakinada was formally welcomed by BJP President Amit Shah at the head office in New Delhi.
Paripoornand held several rounds of talks with Shah and discussed the political situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
He also met the BJP general secretary and RSS propagandist Ram Madhav earlier in the day.
Paripoornand had hit the headlines a few months ago when he was barred by Hyderabad police from entering the city on charges of making inflammatory speeches. He had tried to take out a protest march in the city against alleged objectionable remarks of a Telugu film critic against Hindu deities Rama and Sita.
However the ban was revoked by the Hyderabad High Court and he returned to the city in a big procession. According to sources, BJP was planning to field him in one of the assembly constituencies in Hyderabad as he had a large number of followers in the city. The party was likely to use his services in the election campaign in other parts of Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh.
