Haridwar: Ahead of the ashes immersion of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday, a row has erupted between teerth purohits (priests) in Haridwar over who is the family priest (keeper of genealogical records) of Vajpayee’s family. Three priests have put forward their claims in this regard. All the three are claiming that they have Vajpayee’s family record in their bahi (record books containing a family’s genealogy).While two priests — Upendra Bhagat and Shailesh Gautam — claim to be custodians of family records of people of Bateshwar (from where Vajpayee’s family hailed), Akhilesh Tripathi claims to have genealogies of families from Gwalior (where the late PM’s family had migrated and where he was born). All of them claim to have recorded details of Vajpayee’s family members in their books. Officials of the Shri Ganga Sabha, the body which administers the Har-ki-Pauri ghat, said that they were trying to resolve the issue amicably.Ram Kumar Mishra, general secretary of Shri Ganga Sabha told TOI, “We have asked all the three to show their record books. So far, only Upendra Bhagat has come to us for showing his bahi. The other two have not shown their records but are adamant about their claims. We have asked them to resolve the matter amongst themselves. If they do not reach any conclusion, then officials of Ganga Sabha will perform the rituals for immersing Atal ji’s ashes.”The teerth purohits (priests) of Haridwar maintain centuries-old records of Hindu families who come to Haridwar for the ashes immersion of their family members. The records are made according to the origin of the family and its gotra (caste) and priests are also categorised on behalf of the castes they represent. The teerth purohits claim that they have records going back to more than 300 years preserved in their books.

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