Bypolls Round the Corner, MP Politicians Make a Beeline for Blessings at Ma Baglamukhi Shaktipeeth
Bhopal: Come election season and politicians get into a feverish competition to beat their opponents, from making big promises, launching campaign rallies and sometimes even seeking the blessings of God and hoping for a divine intervention to turn the wind in their favour. This has been the case this time around in Madhya Pradesh.
Politicians big and small are swarming the Maa Baglamukhi Shaktipeeth at Nalkheda in Agar Malwa district, which is famous for blessing the devotees with “powers that can defeat opponents”.
Among those in the fray, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, BJP state president VD Sharma, Congress working president Jitu Patwari, Agriculture minister Kamal Patel and several others have performed havan at the Shaktipeeth.
Nath had performed havan-pujan at the shrine ahead of the 28 assembly bypolls here and senior Congress leaders, including Rakesh Patidar, Jaivardhan Singh and Jitu Patwari have also visited the place in the past.
When the Kamal Nath government was in trouble in March this year, senior BJP leaders Gopal Bhargav and VD Sharma had performed a havan and then PR minister PC Sharma had also done the same to save his government.
This year as, due to Covid-19 restrictions, several VIP politicians visited the shrine to seek darshans and performed havan and tantra sadhna at secret places with the help of local priests. The followership of this temple exceeds the state boundaries as senior politicians from across the country are in the list of devotees.
Prahlad Modi, brother of PM Narendra Modi, had performed rituals at this temple before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while in 2016, Jagdish Rawat, brother of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, had performed a special puja to “ward off enemies of his brother”.
Other high-profile visitors of the temple include Dev Singh Patil, husband of former President Pratibha Patil, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Union minister Smriti Irani and late politician Amar Singh.
In the past, priests from Maa Baglamukhi shkti peeth had also visited former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s residence in Mumbai and performed special puja for him. In 2016, Maharani of Uttarakhand and BJP MP, Malarajya Laxmi Shah, had performed a havan at this place.
In 2018 assembly polls, Sadhna Singh, wife of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, exCM Digvijaya Singh, Niharika Raje, daughter in law of Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, MLAs—Akash Vijayvargiya, Jitu Patwari, Rameshwar Sharma, Bala Bachchan, Privrat Singh Tulsi Silawat, then Mayor Krishna Gaur, and others had sought blessings and performed havan at the shrine.
The legend has it that by worshipping Maa Baglamukhi, devotees are blessed with knowledge, money and power. There is, however, no historical evidence of when the idol of Maa Baglamukhi was installed at the temple. Local also believe that it’s a self-installed statue. The region also has an ancient tale that when Pandavas in Mahabharat era lost their kingdom to Kauravas, lord Krishna asked them to visit Maa Baglamukhi at this place and later the Pandavas did so and managed to regain their kingdom.
During the Navratri, havan is performed here with red chillies and mustard.
