Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday posted a one minute 35-second picture on his Twitter account, paying tribute to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya on his birth anniversary.
Since coming to power in 2014, and even before that, Prime Minister Modi has often quoted Deendayal Upadhyaya in his speeches. His government has dedicated several schemes to him, Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana chief among them.
The government also named Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after him.
While Deendayal Upadhyaya is an icon for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there are very few outside the party who may have heard about him before the party came to power at Centre in 2014.
Here are 10 important facts about Deendayal Upadhyaya:
1- Deendayal Upadhyaya is a Hindutva icon and Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) co-founder. The BJP, established in 1980, is the successor party of the BJS.
2- He was born on September 25, 1916 in the village of Nagla Chandraban in Mathura District. His father was Assistant Station Master at Jalesar. According to the website deendayalupadhyay.org, he was called Deena by the family.
3- Deendayal Upadhyaya's great-grandfather, a well-known astrologer, had predicted that he would become a great scholar and thinker but would not marry.
4- He lost his father when he was less than three years old and his mother before he was eight.
5- During college, he met Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhau Jugade of RSS activities. He rose to become the Provincial Organizer of the RSS in UP.
6- He launched monthly magazine 'Rashtra Dharma', weekly 'Panchjanya' and daily 'Swadesh'.
7- In 1951, he joined the RSS’s political wing, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and soon became its general secretary.
8- Under his leadership, the Jana Sangh became a major political force and rose from four seats in 1957 to 35 in 1967.
9- Integral humanism, a philosophy developed by Deendayal Upadhyaya, was adopted by the Jana Sangh in 1965 as its official philosophy.
10- Deendayal Upadhyaya was found dead at Mughal Sarai Railway yard February 11, 1968.
