First-time BJP MLA Balmukundacharya, elected from Hawa Mahal seat in Jaipur, finds himself in yet another controversy.

On Monday, videos went viral of his comments against students wearing the hijab at government schools during a visit to one such school on January 27, which was followed by a call by senior Cabinet minister Kirodi Lal Meena to enforce a hijab ban on Monday.

On Monday morning, Muslim students surrounded a police station and sought an apology from the MLA.

One of the four religious leaders elected on the BJP ticket to the Rajasthan Assembly in December, Balmukundacharya had hit the headlines for the first time hours after the results. At the time, he asked local officials to take action against alleged encroachment by non-vegetarian restaurants in parts of Jaipur’s Old City, questioning if they could sell in the open and whether they had a licence.

In a video that surfaced of the Hawa Mahal MLA outside Old M M Khan Hotel, one of the more popular eateries in Jaipur, he can be seen pulling up the restaurant manager claiming that women cannot pass by the place, and that “sharabi kebabi (drunk and characterless)” persons who throng there spoil the atmosphere. He goes on to say this is “Apara Kashi (Our Kashi), not Karachi”, amidst slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”.

Later, as a controversy followed, Balmukundacharya had apologised for these comments, while the Jaipur Municipal Corporation said that unlicensed vendors would be issued notices.

Talking to The Indian Express at the time, Balmukundacharya had said the issue he raised was valid but it was perceived “in a wrong way”. “Rules say that meat should be cut in factories and then distributed. But here, there are unlicensed shops all around, leading to diseases. Now after I raised it, there is a queue of people seeking a licence. Where were these people for five years?”

Like his campaign, the 48-year-old’s election campaign too had made headlines. He claimed the main issue in his constituency to be “an exodus from the walled city”. “Businessmen and those living here for generations are vacating. There is also encroachment of religious places, while old temples and structures have been razed or changed beyond recognition,” he said.

Eventually on the day of the counting, till the penultimate round, his opponent, R R Tiwari of the Congress, had been leading, but in the final round, Tiwari received only 374 votes against Balmukundacharya’s 4,061, and lost. Tiwari eventually lost by just 974 votes, with the AIMIM and Aam Aadmi Party together polling 1,161 votes, and spoiling his chances.

After his win, Balmukundacharya had said his priority would be the restoration of temples and old structures, developing parks, businesses, addressing traffic woes, installing cameras to provide security, deploying female police squads, setting up a sports academy and a yoga centre, all of which would help attract tourists. He had also said: “My vision is that ‘all 36 qaum (communities)’ are now my family. Hindus – which include Sikhs, hence there is no need to mention them separately – Muslims and Christians, we are all brothers. We have to change this city and make it beautiful, we have to restore the old form of the city.”

A debutant legislator, Balmukundacharya is well-known among the locals as the mahant of the popular Hathoj Dham temple. The MLA had told The Indian Express that his family had a long-running tradition of pooja, sewa and adhyatam (prayer, service and spirituality). “Last five to six generations of my family have been devoted to temples, maths, ashrams and gaushalas. I myself run an ashram, mandir, gaushala and a gurukul. Hathoj Dham is the centre (of our religious activities) with multiple branches,” he said.

According to Balmukundacharya, he had been associated with the RSS since childhood, apart from with the Bajrang Dal and VHP. “Wherever I went or worked, I constantly went to (RSS) shakhas,” he said.

His formal education ended mid-Class 10, and Balmukundacharya said he later did learning in the Sanatan Dharma through pooja paath (prayer) and Vedic studies from a gurukul and at home. He is married with three people listed as “dependents” in his election affidavit. He also claimed to have been jailed twice over the Ram temple in Ayodhya.