Five time Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur, controversial head priest of Gorakhnath Mutt the saffron clad Yogi Adityanath is set to be the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Adityanath, 44, is one of the most firebrand Hindutva icon currently in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ranks.
Adityanath's name has the stamp of approval of BJP's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His name was announced after the legislative party meeting in Lucknow on the same day as BJP's Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, a lifelong RSS pracharak, was sworn the oath of office in Dehradun. Adityanath and his council of ministers will be sworn in UP Governor Ram Naik on Sunday afternoon.
A government under Adityanath is likely to pursue the BJP’s manifesto promises of banning all slaughterhouses across Uttar Pradesh, which are mostly owned by the Muslim community, and would be expected by his supporters to complete the Sangh Parivar’s unfinished agenda of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Farmers of the state also expect the BJP government to fulfill its electoral promise of waiving off loans of small and marginal farmers.
Adityanath has in the past led campaigns for conversion of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, cow protection, 'love jihad' and has even been arrested once in 2007 on charges of inciting communal violence. The announcement of Adityanath's name was cheered by his supporters in Lucknow with slogans of 'Jai Sri Ram' and 'Ram Mandir banega', or Ram Temple will soon be constructed in Ayodhya.
The choice of Adityanath, whose real name is Ajay Singh and who hails from a Rajput family of Garhwal in Uttarakhand, indicates that the BJP hopes to further consolidate its Hindutva vote for the 2019 polls. The Hindutva consolidation contributed significantly to the BJP and its allies winning a massive 325 of 403 seats in the UP assembly polls. But the party has not ignored the caste configurations that also helped it return to power in Lucknow after a gap of 14 years.
In an effort to keep the caste balance on an even keel, party leadership had also proposed to appoint Keshav Prasad Maurya, the BJP’s state unit chief and its OBC face, and Dinesh Sharma, the party’s next generation Brahmin face and Lucknow mayor, as deputy chief ministers. In the assembly polls, the BJP had effectively stitched an upper caste plus non-Yadav OBC alliance.
Adityanath has been chosen despite his propensity of not always toeing the line of the party’s top leadership in the past. His name emerged after a week-long speculation where Maurya, Sharma, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and even Home Minister Rajnath Singh were spoken of as possible contenders.
In the run up to the polls, Adityanath had demanded at least a 100 candidates of his choice, and had even threatened to put up rebel candidates against the party's official candidates in his sphere of influence in eastern UP. However, top BJP leadership reached out to Adityanath and employed him effectively in the campaigning. In a first for Adityanath, he had a dedicated helicopter at his disposal and addressed on average half dozen election meetings daily.
In the Uttar Pradesh campaign that was marked by efforts at communal polarization, it was common for Adityanath’s supporters to shout slogans like ‘Desh mein Modi, Pradesh mein Yogi’, or Modi to lead India and Yogi Adityanath to lead UP.