In late 2014, addressing an event of the Hindu Yuva Vahini at Jhandewalan in New Delhi, Yogi Adityanath implored the gathering — attended mostly by young men — to launch a “reverse love jihad”. He said if Muslims married Hindu girls to convert them, Hindu men should also marry Muslim girls.
The yogi, named on Saturday to become the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, also said if there was any trouble, he would provide them support, just as he did to Hindu young men in Gorakhpur.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was once described as the mukhauta, or the mask, of the Sangh Parivar; Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinvented himself from his image of a Hindu hridaya samrat, or the emperor of Hindu hearts, to a vikas purush or the man of development. The saffron clad 44-year-old Yogi Adityanath is the brazen face of aggressive Hindutva.
The head priest of Gorakhnath temple is never defensive about his brand of Hindutva. In Gorakhpur, he has taken up causes such as conversion of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, and cow protection. Adityanath has even been briefly jailed for allegedly inciting violence during the Gorakhpur communal riots in 2007.
But he remains enormously popular among his supporters. A five-time Member of Parliament of Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath was first elected in 1998 at the age of 26 and has never lost an election.
In Parliament, Adityanath has earlier moved a private members’ Bill for amending Article 1 of the Constitution to replace the word “India” with “Hindusthan”. The Bill argues that Article 1 should read “Bharat, that is Hindustan…” and not “India, that is Bharat…”
In Gorakhpur, a town on the India-Nepal border, Adityanath is a revered figure.
Each morning, he meets his constituents and sundry petitioners on the premises of Gorakhnath Mutt. The petitioners could range from a poor peasant wanting financial assistance to a mid-level bureaucrat in need of a transfer. All approach him and touch his feet, including government servants and police personnel.
In his speeches, Adityanath frequently boasts that professors of universities and bureaucrats come to him for help because they are being terrorised by a particular community or their daughters are in love with a man from a minority community. He claims to quickly solve such cases.
Adityanath is a Rajput from Garhwal in Uttarakhand. He is unmarried, always wears saffron robes, including matching socks, and thick earrings. Of late, Adityanath has also taken to wearing dark glasses when outdoors in daytime.
After the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP chief Amit Shah made Adityanath the in-charge of by-polls in 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh that took place later that year. At least for a year now, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has wanted him to be declared the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, but the party leadership thought this could lead to infighting.
While Adityanath might be an upper caste Thakur, the Gorakhnath Mutt is frequented mostly by Other Backward Classes, which has always helped him garner support from across the caste spectrum in Gorakhpur.
Such is his popularity that in the recently concluded Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP leadership was jittery that Adityanath might field independent candidates to ensure the defeat of official party candidates since some of his recommendations in distribution of tickets were not met.
The party leadership reached out to him, provided him a helicopter to tour the state and address public meetings. On Sunday, he will be sworn-in as the state’s chief minister.