Mahant Yogi Adityanath, aka Ajay Bisht, born in Tehri Garwhal district of Uttarakhand, now head of the Gorakshnath temple, Gorakhpur, will be the 32nd Chief Minister of UP. He is the science graduate from Garwhal University. He is the fifth Chief Minister from the Rajput community. The earlier four Chief Ministers from this community were Tribhuvan Naryan Singh, Vishwanath Prtap Singh and Vir Bahadur Singh of the Congress and Rajnath Singh of the BJP. Yogi Adityanath is the fifth term lok Sabha member of the BJP from Gorakhpur. He was first elected to the lok Sabha from Gorakhpur in 1998, then the youngest member of the lok Sabha MP as he was only 26 years of age.
Yogi, the five terms MP from Gorakhpur was miffed for being denied berth in the Union Cabinet. Elevation of Manoj Tewari, BJP MP from Delhi, as Delhi State BJP president had hurt him. In 2009 lok Sabha elections, Manoj Tewari was the Samajwadi party candidate against Yogi from Gorakhpur lok Sabha seat and had lost the security deposits. His elevation as CM has now assuaged the hurt.
Though the BJP critics have disapproved the choice face of hindutuva politics as the UP Chief Minister saying he has been chosen for the consolidation of the Hindu vote bank ahead of 2019 lok Sabha elections, BJP sources said “choice of Yogi has nothing to do with hindutuva politics, he is the Mahant of the Gorakshnath temple, the revered place for the Hindus irrespective of the caste divide’’.
The BJP leaders are least surprised by the decision of the Central leadership for choosing Yogi Adityanath. “Amit Shah had realised the leadership potential of Yogi and utilised his talent as aggressive campaigner during the Assembly elections. Yogi from first phase of Assembly election to the last and seventh phase addressed at least six election meeting in each phase and also held road show in many cities’’. Moreover a BJP leader said “though Yogi is MP since 1998, it was Amit Shah who regularly invited Yogi Adityanath in meetings of the Central election committee in Delhi and consulted him on all key issues of UP politics and Assembly election’’. A senior BJP leader said “Amit Shah himself is a disciple of the Goraksh nath temple’’.
It will be interesting to watch as to how the profile of the Yogi Adityanath unfolds as the Chief Minister of UP with the huge responsibility of development and good governance.
so far Yogi has represented the rabble rousers brigade of the BJP and known for practising hard Hindutuva.
Owing to the strident Hindutuva politics of Yogi Adityannath, like fighting the ‘love Jihad’ and his strident campaign for religious conversions better known as ‘Ghar vapsi’, the Gorakshnath temple is now known as the ‘Golden temple of the east’. During the hectic campaign of recent Assembly election Yogi fiercely attacked the alleged Muslim appeasement policies of the Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj party and declared that the Hindus would stop naming their children as ‘Akhilesh’ as this has become a hated name for the majority community.
Despite the uneasy relationship with Yogi Adityanath, the BJP in recently concluded State Assembly elections utilised the ‘skills’ of the saffron clad Yogi known as Baba among his disciples and followers, to mobilise the Hindu electorate in all corners of the State particularly in the communally surcharged region of Western UP.
During the elections, the war room at the State office of the BJP in lucknow was flooded with request from the party candidates asking for election meeting of Yogi. Yogi did not disappoint the party candidates and addressed election meetings in all the parts of the state particularly in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli district. Kairana town in Shamli district which had hogged the national headlines for the migration of the Hindu community from the town over the alleged threat from the anti social elements from the minority community.
BJP chief Amit Shah credited for the land slide victory of the BJP, organised a road show in Gorakhpur, which went to polls in sixth phase of polling on March 4. Amit Shah by his side stood Yogi, one of the star campaigners of the BJP, in the truck drapped in marigold flowers. The optics was important for the BJP. The BJP won 8 out of the total 9 assembly seats in Gorakhpur district. Yogi supporters raised the slogan of Rs jai Sri Ram’ as the road show passed through the muslim dominated localities. The muslims watched the show with consternation complaining that it was a deliberate attempt by the Rs Baba’ to vitiate the atmosphere of the city ahead of the polling for the assembly elections. But Yogi is known, loved and admired by his followers for this kind of confrontational politics in UP. It’s for this politics of Yogi who has renamed Alinagar as Aryan agar and Urdu bazaar as Hindi bazaar, that Gorakhpur has become the communal cauldron for the state police and intelligence agencies.
Though Yogi is a BJP MP, had a troubled relationship with the party over ever since he became the MP. Earlier his Guru and spiritual. father Mahant Avaidyanath was the MP from Gorakhpur and he was known more for his association with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an RSS controlled outfit. Yogi Adityanath cares little for the party disciple and line in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts of eastern UP. In 2012 state assembly elections he had a running battle with the then state BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi. The BJP was wiped out in region and Shahi also lost the election from Patthardeva seat in Deoria district.
After entering the parliament, Yogi Adityanath floated Hindu Yuva vahini, a militant Hindu organisation which claims to works for the rescue of the Hindus wherever they are threatened or intimidated by the Muslims. In all previous assembly elections in UP in 2002, 2007 and 2012 he had fielded his candidates in close to three dozen constituencies in eastern UP. During this elections many of the BJP rebels, sore over the party’s preference for the3 candidates from the OBCs, were in contest. The BJP however was successful in persuading to support the official candidate of the party.
For the BJP championing the cause of Rs Sabk saath Sab kaa vikas’, it will be an uphill task to defend the selection of Yogi as the next chief minister of UP. The move will send negative signals to the minorities which are already under represented in the assembly and the BJP has not given ticket to Muslim candidate.
