Mayawati’s rainbow coalition may just get a saffron tinge. On the eve of his meeting with the BSP chief for a formal entry into the party, Sudhirdas Maharaj, the Mahant of Nashik’s Kalaram temple who hopes to be the BSP’s Brahmin face in Maharashtra, showed up at a VHP press conference in New Delhi today.

Seated alongside VHP president Ashok Singhal and Mahant Nrityagopaldas of Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas, Sudhirdas Maharaj criticised the Sethusamudram project for the damage it would cause to the so-called Ram Setu.

The Mahant, who came into limelight two years ago when he said his grandfather made a “big mistake” by not letting Babasaheb Ambedkar and his followers have darshan at the Nashik temple seven decades ago, also attended the VHP margdarshak mandal meeting that adopted resolutions on Ramjanmabhoomi and against Sethusamudram and the “cancer of secularism”.

At the press conference, Sudhirdas sat quietly as Singhal hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the spread of Christianity in India and how she was “responsible”. While he did not add to these comments, it was clear that the Mahant was familiar with and enjoyed the respect of Singhal.

Widely regarded as a reformist priest and one of the leading Brahmins to endorse the BSP in Maharashtra, the Mahant hopes to meet Mayawati in Delhi and formally join the party as an “act of atonement” for “grandfather’s sin”.

“I will wait for Behenji to give me any role. I just want to pledge unconditional support to her,” he said.