A 'surprise' CM who became a brand and now a constant of BJP's politics

In March 2017, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared Yogi Adityanath— its five-time Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur and Mahant of Gorakhnath Mutt— as the chief minister after party's landslide victory in the U.P. assembly election, there was surprise in the political corridors.

- Rajesh Kumar Singh

[e-mail] LUCKNOW:

Now, when Yogi Adityanath completes eight years in office, he has not only set a record of being the longest serving CM of Uttar Pradesh as well as the only CM of the state to have two terms in a row, but has also become a constant of BJP politics and poster boy of its Hindutva brand politics.

From playing a pivotal role in the opening of Ram temple in Ayodhya to endorsing the Hindu groups' claims over shrines in Varanasi and Mathura, successful Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, bulldozer actions against mafias, calling for Hindu unity with 'batenge to katenge' slogan, Yogi is setting the tenor of the BJP election campaigns not only in Uttar Pradesh but also in other states where the party was locked in a fierce battle with the opposition.

Considered a Hindu hardliner, Yogi Adityanath's political activities were confined to the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh nurturing his outfit- Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) to maintain a hold in the rural areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh before he took over the reins of the state.

Although he disbanded the HYV after becoming the CM, but to send a message that he remained rooted in the Hindutva ideology, Yogi continued as the Mahant of Gorakhnath Mutt. He also ordered a crackdown on criminals and illegal slaughterhouses across the state.

The first major test for him on law and order front came during the infamous Bikru case in Kanpur when 8 policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police rank cop, were killed in July 2020 in an ambush by the gang of notorious criminal Vikas Dubey.

Yogi ordered crackdown on the gang and a police team nabbed Dubey in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district. When the police team was bringing him to Kanpur, the vehicle in which he was travelling mysteriously overturned near Kanpur. Dubey was killed while he was trying to flee after snatching the weapon of a policeman. Dubey's killing sent a tough message to the criminals.