dehradun a month ago when bjp president amit shah handpicked satpal maharaj for coordinating the ambedkar birth anniversary function in haridwar it allegedly caused heartburn among many in the state bjp over the increasing clout of the spiritual leader who left the congress in 2014 to join the saffron party on thursday maharajs growing influence was again evident in the massive samrasta equality rally that he put together for the bjp president incidentally this was not the first time that maharaj had flexed his political muscle within the party last year rss rashtriya swayamsevak sangh chief mohan bhagwat had visited maharajs ashram in haridwar a senior bjp leader who did not wish to be named acknowledged that maharajs growing proximity with central leaders indicated that he wanted a greater role in party matters in uttarakhand which might be disturbing maharaj who was a prominent congress leader switched camps to the bjp after his arch rival harish rawat became the cm at present he is a member of the national executive committee of the bjp but holds no post in the partys hierarchy structure in uttarakhand a long time aspirant for the cms chair maharaj was in the news recently when he allegedly objected to senior bjp leader bhagat singh koshyari being considered for the chief ministership quite tellingly koshyari was missing from thursdays rally