Hyderabad: Former Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) director M. Nageswara Rao has entered active politics as national president of the Sarvajana Sanatan Party, officially launching the outfit from Varanasi, with Jyotirmath Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati serving as its chief mentor and spiritual guide.
Stepping into the political arena after nearly four decades in civil service and police administration, Rao has positioned the Sarvajana Sanatana Party (SSP) around civilisational revival, asserting that governance must bridge economic development with ‘Sanatana’ ethos while advocating free quality education, universal healthcare, opportunities for youth, farmers, artisans, labourers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.
Preservation of temples and pilgrimage sites as living civilisational centers, is also one of its stated goals.
“Truly, secularism means to be treated equally. Only if education, healthcare, and livelihoods are provided for all Indian without caste discrimination, regional distinction, or creating religious polarity, will all Indians be considered truly equal,” Rao told ThePrint.
The Odisha cadre 1986-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) Officer, who served twice as the interim director of the CBI announced his move from Kashi, or Varanasi, after rejecting the offer to join active politics twice. “This time around, I acquiesced to his (Avimukteshwaranand’s) plea because there is much work to be done in India. I made my political debut from Kashi because it is the spiritual capital of India; Delhi is only the political and administrative capital of the country,” he said.
Other faces of the party include its national vice president Mahant Tirthanand, vice president Ritu Rathod, general secretary Raja Saksham Singh Yogi, spokesperson Babita Sharma, Uttar Pradesh incharge Rakesh Tiwari, and organisation minister Narnarayan Singh.
The party’s guiding motto is “Modern India, with its Sanatan civilizational roots” (Satyasanatan, Nitya Noutan).
“Our objective is not to go back to the past, but to build a modern India that grounds itself in its civilisational roots and constitutional roots alone. We cannot be a country that is disconnected from its cultural identity,” Rao said.
The party’s launch marks a critical inflection point in regional and national dynamics, becoming the fifth political party to emerge from the Telugu-speaking states in the span of just three to four months.
With a prominent Telugu native from Telangana helming a venture backed by the Shankaracharya’s religious moral authority, the newly-floated political outfit intends to challenge conventional political alignments by fielding candidates across key electoral battlegrounds—including Uttar Pradesh—and establishing a distinct, hardline socio-cultural front rooted in civilisational politics rather than standard administrative reform. Besides Uttar Pradesh, the party said it would also contest elections in Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Uttarakhand.
SSP identifies itself as a pro-civilisation party and is open to alliances with pro-Hindu parties in all the states that are going to polls in 2027.
Rao, however, clarified that he will not be contesting assembly or parliamentary elections and will instead offer his services as a mentor. He is also noted for his activities related to Hindu cultural and religious assertion, authoring a book called ‘A Quiver Full of Arrows’.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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