Yogi Adityanath was an unexpected pick by the BJP for the chief minister’s post after the party scored a landslide win in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
A poster boy for Hindutva, saffron-robed Adityanath was considered a rabble-rouser and often accused of making provocative remarks against Muslims.
This time around, his appointment as the CM wasn’t much of a surprise. During the assembly poll campaign, BJP bigwigs hailed the success of Adityanath-Narendra Modi’s‘ double-engine’ government in the state over the past five years. And the CM tweeted a telling picture of Modi placing a hand over his shoulders.
Some observers predict an even bigger role for him the BJP in coming years, though Adityanath took pains in an address to the MLAs to thank Modi and Shah for their “guidance” during his first term when he had no administrative experience.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah even said Adityanath needed to be back as CM in 2022 if the party sought to return to power at the Centre in 2024. With the Bharatiya Janata Party’s return to power, the monk-politician has consolidated his place in the organization.
On Friday, Adityanath, 48, was sworn in as chief minister, becoming the first CM in over three and a half decades to return to power in the state after completing a full five-year term. Born Ajay Singh Bisht in Pauri Garhwal’s Panchur (now Uttarakhand), on June 5, 1972, Adityanath left home in 1990 to join the campaign to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur.
After Avaidyanath’s death in 2014, he took over as the head of the Gorakhnath `math’, a post he still holds and makes frequent trips to the eastern UP town. In Gorakhpur, he founded his own band of volunteers, called the Hindu Yuva Vahini. Adityanath went to school in his native village and later completed his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
He entered politics in the direction of his guru in 1998 and at 28 became the youngest Lok Sabha member, winning from Gorakhpur. He went on the represent the parliamentary seat four more times till he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on March 19, 2017. He was then elected to the state legislative council so that he could continue as the CM. In 2022, however, he fought and won the assembly election from Gorakhpur Urban constituency.
