Bhopal, May 25 (IANS): The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh government has approved Y-category security cover to controversial self-styled godman Dhirendra Krishna Shastri aka 'Bageshwar Dham Sarkar'.

Sources told IANS that the Madhya Pradesh Police on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs as well as different state police forces across the country informing about the granting Y-category security to Shastri, and requested he be given similar security while visiting places outside his home state.

Shastri visits different states to organise "Divya Darabar", and the most recent one in Patna where controversy broke out as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav slammed him over his continued demand for declaring India a Hindu Rashtra.

Shastri, head priest of the Hanuman temple at Bageshwar Dham in MP's Chhatarpur district, has often courted controversy, spanning from those related to his claims of possessing mysterious powers to his political statements.

However, in his home state, he has been getting equal respect from both, the ruling BJP and the prime opposition Congress, with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath visiting him in Chhatarpur.

Presently holding religious discourses in MP's Maoist-affected Balaghat district, Shastri is slated to travel to PM Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat next for four days from May 26 to hold 'Divya Darbar' in three cities - Surat, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot.