Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Image Credit source: File photo
Is this question important? Is there any big change in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections (UP Assembly Election) Could it be about leadership after the results of? Prime Minister Narendra Modi (PM Modi) Has repeatedly announced this in rallies and public meetings – "Aayega to Yogi hi", yet many questions are floating in the air. The important thing is that Yogi Adityanath (Yogi Adityanath) He is the person who neither contested the UP assembly elections in the year 2017 nor was he a star campaigner for a long time. His name was not even among the contenders for the post of Chief Minister, despite all this, BJP made him the Chief Minister and then there was no big protest about this in these five years.
Now the question arises that when he himself is the Chief Minister, then why is there uncertainty about Yogi taking over the chair after the BJP comes to power again? While this time BJP has formally made him the chief ministerial candidate, he is a star campaigner, he has also walked in the distribution of tickets in the elections. Despite allegations of casteist politics on Yogi Adityanath, the party did not dare to change its face. During this, BJP changed the entire cabinet twice in Uttarakhand, once in Karnataka and in Gujarat, but did not touch Uttar Pradesh.
Yogi Adityanath is contesting assembly elections for the first time
Votes have been cast in five phases of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and in these five phases, the last time BJP had gathered the required majority to form the government. At that time, he had won 240 seats out of 292 seats in these five phases, that is, he had achieved the necessary figures for a clear majority, so will he not be able to get this majority this time? We are not bothering about the election results and do not want to give any guesses. The question is, if BJP gets majority in these elections, will Yogi become the Chief Minister again?
Yogi Adityanath is contesting assembly elections for the first time in these elections. That is, the most important sixth phase and the most important Gorakhpur seat in it. He was a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur seat when the results of the last assembly elections came and when he was elected the leader of the legislature party, instead of contesting the assembly elections, he took the path of the Legislative Council. His rival Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav is also contesting the assembly elections for the first time. Akhilesh had also chosen the path of the Legislative Council after becoming the Chief Minister in the year 2012. Yogi Adityanath has previously been an MP from Gorakhpur since 1998. His guru Mahant Avaidyanath had been an MP from here.
Political experts do not consider Yogi Adityanath to be basically a member of the BJP or the Sangh Parivar. They see him as the Mahant of Gorakhpur Peeth and the face of Hindu Yuva Vahini. This means that Yogi Adityanath is not seen as a leader who follows the discipline of the BJP. It is also feared that if the party leadership dares to take any step against him, he may choose his own path. Some people associate it with the strength and popularity of his leadership or some see the possibility of indiscipline in it. By the way, there is hardly any occasion in the last twenty years when Yogi has crossed his limits, except once when he not only fielded his candidate against BJP's official candidate Shiv Pratap Shukla but also defeated Shukla. Shukla is currently a member of Rajya Sabha and also a minister in the Modi government.
Yogi went through every phase in the last five years
Yogi Adityanath says that after taking initiation, he not only gave up his caste identity but also left his family. Many people have been accusing him of adopting casteist politics or Thakurism. Due to this politics of Yogi, a large section of Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh is said to be angry with him. There are eight Brahmin ministers in Yogi's government. Political experts consider him as a leader doing radical Hindutva politics, then his supporters call Yogi as Hindu Hriday Samrat. It is alleged that Yogi does politics of upper castes. There is still resentment among the BJP or a large section of its voters over the fact that the last election was fought under the leadership of Keshav Prasad Maurya, which meant that he would become the chief minister, but instead of Yogi, an upper-caste and hardline Hindu leader. was made the Chief Minister. Maurya was made the Deputy Chief Minister.
This chain of displeasure happened at the very beginning, when Maurya's name plate was removed from the room with Chief Minister Yogi on the fifth floor of the UP Secretariat. The resentment against Yogi was visible even when more than a hundred BJP MLAs demonstrated against their own government. As the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath carried the agenda of Hindutva and at the same time created his own image of strengthening law and order. When his 'thumping policy' was criticized fiercely, he raised a large devotee class with him. The government's policies on love jihad made him very popular in a section. During Corona, the pictures of migrant laborers returning to UP on foot in the first phase and dead bodies flowing in many rivers in the second phase made the attacks on them serious. At the same time, he tried to improve the arrangement of hospitals, to provide oxygen and to fix the atmosphere by arranging free ration.
However, the work of construction of Ram temple started after the decision of Supreme Court and most of the people give credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of Yogi. In these five years, Yogi not only went to Ayodhya more than 40 times, there he also worked to give a new identity to the city of Ayodhya with Deepotsav by lighting lakhs of lamps every Diwali. The name of Faizabad district was changed to 'Ayodhya'. The name of the station was changed to 'Ayodhya Cantt'. Renovated the railway station. Created a new picture of development. Approved the airport and also did the work of acquisition and purchase of land for the construction of the temple. With this, Allahabad has now become 'Prayagraj' under Yogi Raj, then Mughalsarai railway station is now known as 'Deen Dayal Upadhyay'. Vishwanath Corridor was constructed in Kashi. Yogi became 'Baba Bulldozer' by campaigning against the mafia. It is alleged that this bulldozer of his went against a particular class mafia and the mafia who went to jail or were killed in the encounter, they are also considered to be of a particular class.
Yogi's stature increased with the support of RSS leadership
In these five years, the popularity of Yogi Adityanath was not limited to Uttar Pradesh only. BJP also used him for campaigning in areas like Hyderabad, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Tamil Nadu. The Sangh Parivar left no stone unturned to keep him the face of Hindutva. He also showed the effect of campaigning in these areas. Despite the alliance of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 as Chief Minister, he managed to get BJP more than sixty seats in the state. He snatched Amethi, a Congress stronghold, from Rahul Gandhi. It is not that questions did not arise in the party regarding Yogi Adityanath, there came a time when the demand for change of leadership in the state also started gaining momentum. Then there were many meetings of senior Sangh leaders and BJP leaders in Delhi and Lucknow and the victory was in favor of Yogi.
Some believe that Yogi's stature increased due to the support of the RSS leadership. Yogi became the chief ministerial face of BJP in the assembly elections, despite the unwillingness of many leaders. There is no dearth of people in the Sangh and Yogi supporters who are following Yogi as the face of leadership after Modi. The political field is often jammed with such stories. Now, the first test is to win this assembly election and get majority for the party, clear majority and then their fight will be on the second level, to reach the chief minister's chair. It is being said that Akhilesh Yadav is giving him a tough competition. At the local level, the atmosphere against the MLAs has increased the difficulties, as well as a crack in social engineering due to some leaders leaving the BJP and joining the Samajwadi Party.
Before questioning Yogi's political future, one should know his history, especially that mysterious story of Yogi suddenly becoming the Chief Minister last time. On the evening of March 18, 2017, a fair was held outside the Lok Bhavan in Lucknow, there was no place to keep sesame seeds. The legislative party meeting started inside. No one had any idea of Yogi's name before the BJP Legislature Party meeting, not even Suresh Khanna, the senior-most eight-time MLA who proposed the name.
BJP's victory with a clear majority means Yogi's return
With the warmth in the atmosphere in the auditorium of Lok Bhavan, the circle of suspense was getting deeper. The political film was turning into a mystery and a thriller. The heartbeat of the legislators had increased. When the sun in the west was preparing to set, he too was probably waiting for a new sun for the next morning. UP BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya, Dinesh Sharma, Om Prakash Mathur and Sunil Bansal, along with both party observers Venkaiah Naidu and Bhupendra Yadav, reached the auditorium. The surprise of the MLAs increased when Yogi Adityanath's entry was made in the auditorium. Yogi did not attend most of the BJP meetings. Most of the people had no idea that Yogi was in Lucknow because the news of him being Gorakhpur was going on a day before that.
Venkaiah Naidu invited the MLAs of his allies Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party to come forward. Then came Suresh Khanna's turn. Khanna's three-minute welcome speech seemed to the MLAs as if a life had passed, just waiting for the name. In the end, Khanna said – "I propose the name of Yogi Adityanath as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party". Suddenly the whole atmosphere changed, a euphoria, a zeal, a commotion, congratulations, noise.. So much noise and enthusiasm that Venkaiah Naidu had to interrupt – wait, this does not happen, let the action be completed first, but no one is there to listen. MLA Dharampal Singh supported the proposal. Then Venkaiah Naidu asked if anyone has any objection. As if the question was drowned in the noise of applause and gaiety.
For the Chief Minister of the country's largest state, the country's largest party BJP chose the leader in a very "democratic way". As soon as BJP came out and announced it, the news spread like fire across the country. The enthusiasm of the workers was visible on sight – the echo of the slogans "UP mein hai to yogi-yogi kahna hai" was heard in the air. Whether Yogi will become the Chief Minister or not, the important question is whether the BJP government will be formed again this time. In the last twenty years, the government of any party has not been formed again in UP and now the era has passed even after the formation of a coalition government. BJP's clear majority victory means Yogi's return, will the slogan of "Modi hai to mumkin hai" show magic here?
(The author is a senior journalist, the views expressed in the article are the personal of the author.)
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