UP: 'Yogi ki Sena' Hindu Yuva Vahini gets an image makeover for this Lok Sabha elections

GORAKHPUR: "Yogi ki sena" has got an image makeover this Lok Sabha elections. Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) has campaigned for BJP in its hometurf, Gorakhpur, and other parts of the state, but with a "cleaner" image as new joinees have been inducted after a thorough background check. Their documents and aadhar cards have been screened also to find out if they have any case registered against them in any of the police stations.
No new members though have been inducted at the decision-making and "intellectual" level.
UP general secretary, HYV, Pk Mall, said much about the person's background can be found out from the place where he lives. "Rest could be verified through his documents and by police. Many rotten elements have already been ousted."
The right-wing organization was lying low since 2017 when its patron and head priest of Goraknath temple, Yogi Adityanath, decided to scale it down after he became the CM. The reason was the infamy and bad press which the organization was getting for its reportedly unlawful activities.
But, this elections, it has been made to stand again on its feet and that's not without a reason. After BJP lost the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat in the 2018 bypoll, much of the loss was attributed to HYV not being part of the party's promotional campaigns.
But this time, HYV had held a national level meeting to convey it to the vahini workers that they have to garner support for BJP.
"Both Modiji and Yogiji are synonymous with Hindutva and nationalism and that's what HYV stands for. We may not campaign through mike or from stage but through `jansampark' (mass contact programmes)," said the incharge of the organization and the BJP MLA from Dumariyaganj Raghvendra Pratap Singh.
Many old members who had deserted the organization after it was scaled down were brought back in February this year.
Being a "hindutvavaadi and a rashtravaadi' organization, HYV's efforts are given to checking conversion and love-jihad as much as ensuring `ghar-wapasi' and protecting cows. In western UP, it did result into law and order problem on several occasions. The organization's unlawful activities, mostly, were being linked to the CM.
Though the vahini members are of the view that, on most occasions, it was done by people who were not a part of the organization. "By simply wearing a saffron-coloured `gamchha' one does not become a vahini member. But it was for the saffron add-ons that many of these elements were identified by police to be associated with the organization," said Mall.
Though, for some time, even the original members of the organization gave up portraying the saffron `gamchha', it was then thought to check the background of people before making them the member at the field level.
In Gorakhpur, where politics revolves around the revered and famous Goraknath temple, the `temple-force' Hindu Yuva Vahini plays a major role given its structure that goes down till the block and village level.
The right-wing organization was formed by Yogi in 2002. It started working on Ram Navami day the same year and was registered as an NGO in 2005. The `social and cultural' organization works to bridge the divide between the upper and lower castes in the society. It has its presence in all 75 districts of UP.
In Purvanchal at least 80 units of HYV are active.