BJP anoints Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister

Even before the formal announcement was made a little before 7 pm on Saturday, the tweets said it all.

“Hindutva won, Hindus won, No place for seculars now; Jai Shri Ram” exulted one of them.

“No family, no greed, great personality, popular, young and bold! Yes, Yogi Adityanath can be Modi of Uttar Pradesh”, chipped in another.

Even those who were more circumspect were clearly delirious. “Give #Yogi Adityanath a chance. Actually, give him APCO ( the American PR firm that was hired to build up the image of Narendra Modi before 2014) and he will be running for PM in 2024,” summed up the Saturday evening sentiment among supporters.

Suspense on who would be the next Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh continued throughout Saturday as small groups of Yogi supporters and also supporters of state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya gathered at the BJP headquarters and raised slogans demanding that their leader be anointed the chief minister.

The Yogi himself took a chartered flight to Delhi during the day, presumably to call on the Prime Minister and the BJP national president before flying back to Lucknow.

In the meanwhile, Union Minister Manoj Sinha, touted as the frontrunner by the media, was busy doing the rounds of temples in Varanasi, giving fillip to speculation. While the media went into a tizzy following Sinha from one temple to another, he flew back to Lucknow and before the BJP legislature party meeting started around 5 pm, had boarded a flight for Delhi. It seemed a well choreographed diversion to keep suspense alive.

Keshav Prasad Maurya, MP for Phulpur and Dinesh Sharma, mayor of Lucknow, were appointed Deputy Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh. With this, neither the Chief Minister-designate or either of his deputies are from among the 312 elected BJP MLAs.

A year older than outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the 1972-born Yogi Adityanath (45) is a science graduate from Garhwal University and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 for the first time at the age of 26. Five-time MP from Gorakhpur, he is head of two dozen educational institutions, besides being the President of 17 organisations and secretary of 26 institutions, mostly schools, colleges, nursing and medical colleges etc.

On the Lok Sabha website the MP has listed campaigning for cow protection as his special interest. His favourite pastimes are listed as gardening, religious discourses, bhajans and touring religious spots.

REACTIONS TO BJP’s CHOICE OF YOGI ADITYANATH