Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: For Yogi Adityanath, the only way is UP, as he creates history

The saffron stays in Uttar Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata is all set to retain power in India’s most politically key state, having crossed the halfway mark, as trends continue to pour in. Yogi Adiyanath is set to return as chief minister, further cementing his place in the party and making history along the way.

The 47-year-old firebrand leader did not find a mention on the BJP’s star campaigner list in 2017. Today he is set to become the first UP chief minister to return to power after having completed a full five-year term.

Uttar Pradesh has had 21 CMs in the past 70 years. However, none have achieved what Adityanath has.

The rise and rise of Yogi Adityanath

Before the 2017 elections, Adityanath was largely considered a local leader, his influence restricted to Gorakhpur, where he was the five-time MLA. He was the head priest of the Gorakhpur Mutt, a successor of Mahant Avaidyanath at Goraksh Peeth. But beyond eastern UP few knew of the monk who would go on to become the face of the BJP.

In 2017, Adityanath’s pick as chief minister of UP came as a big surprise. Even after the party’s massive victory, when the then BJP chief Amit Shah met the mahant in Delhi on March 16, he revealed nothing. Adityanath returned to Gorakhpur the next day only to receive a call from Shah to come back to the capital. There was no flight from Gorakpur to the capital then. Shah reportedly sent a chartered flight, Adiyanath was elected as BJP state legislative party leader, and then elevated to the post of CM.

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There were murmurs within political circles that the BJP’s hands were tied and that its ideological mentor RSS pushed for Adityanath’s candidature. All that is far behind the party now with the UP CM having climbed up the ladder of influence. Today not only is he, one of the country’s most popular (albeit controversial) state leaders but is also helping the party break new records. It’s for the first time since 1985 that a ruling party will be returning to power in UP.

BJP’s ascent in the state is credited to the CM. Now the party speaks his language. Love jihad, a ban on slaughterhouses, and triple talaq were all issues close to Adityanath’s heart.

Adityanath's vision for UP

In 2017, two days after he took oath as CM, the BJP launched anti-Romeo squads in the state to “protect the honour” of women. The squads were called out for moral policing, but it’s an initiative that Adityanath takes pride in. When he campaigned in West Bengal in 2021 if promised to introduce the same in the eastern state.

During the anti-CAA protests, he plastered the photographs of demonstrators in public, then he launched “Operation Durachari’ to name and shame alleged sexual harassers. In February last year, the state passed the contentious anti-conversion bill, prohibiting religious conversion by marriage. Despite a nationwide furore, other BJP states – from Karnataka to Jharkhand – were quick to adopt the law.

One of the issues that have won Adityanath a lot of support in a state that has often been dubbed as the “crime capital of India” is the crackdown on law and order. “Since 2017, no riots or terrorist activities have taken place in the state. Yet, the government isn’t quiet. We are building an Anti-Terrorism Squad Centre at sensitive places in view of national security,” he had claimed before filing his nomination from the Gorakhpur Urban seat ahead of the state elections. He added that UP has become a preferred destination for investors after the crime rate has gone down.

Yogi Adityanath has a plan for UP and Thursday's results show that people of UP believe in it. He is leading in the Gorakhpur seat, showing a massive lead of 31,000 votes. His opponents Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and Samajwadi Party’s Subhawati Shukla don’t stand a chance.

With BJP’s emphatic win predicted in the state, Adiyanath has done his job and done it well. What next then? A bigger role in the Centre?

With inputs from agencies

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