Why Yogi Adityanath As UP CM Is As Significant As Ram Temple In Ayodhya

The election of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is a move that will have long-term ramifications. For one, it could prompt Arundhati Roy and people like her to secede from India!

Jokes apart, the Adityanath decision is as significant as the one related to the Babri demolition in Ayodhya. For the faithful, the decision holds as much promise as the promise to build a “grand temple” in Ayodhya.

The BJP and the extended Hindutva parivar is just not limited to the law-abiding, reforms oriented, middle class. It also includes, in its ambit, the Bajrang Dal rabble-rousers; the vigilantes who take up “crusades like cow protection”; and the deviants who see in Muslims a threat to the Hindu populace. Through the Aditynanath decision, in one stroke, the BJP has appeased this entire constituency.

While analysts will debate whether the RSS had the last laugh in nominating the UP CM candidate, and whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have liked someone with a far more cleaner image, with impeccable administrative credentials, like Telecommunications Minister Manoj Sinha, the fact remains that Adityanath is not your run-of-the-mill politician.

An unabashed champion of Hindu interests, Adityanath’s is probably the first such decision taken, much against the firm principle of merit-based appointments like Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, Manohar Parrikar in Goa, Raghubar Das in Jharkhand, and Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana.

After having won a mammoth 325 seats in the 403-member UP Assembly, the BJP has probably acknowledged the subterranean – and overarching – Hindutva message therein.

Yogi is an ambitious five-term MP, whose supporters were trying to get him announced the CM candidate much before the elections. That, however, didn’t happen, and the PM wisely kept the focus on “sab ka saath sab ka vikas”. Yogi is also reported to have stormed out of a meeting with BJP president Amit Shah for the party president refused to toe the Yogi line. Yogi’s army of Hindu Vahini volunteers were not exactly rooting for the BJP in the recent assembly elections, even though Yogi belatedly distanced himself from them.

So, what does the BJP – or the RSS – aim to achieve by having Yogi at the helm in the most populous state? Apart from the fact that the RSS will probably have a free run in the state, and the fringe would be kept happy?

During his Gujarat days, Narendra Modi was known as a Hindu hardliner, especially after Godhra. His re-election as the state CM and then unprecedented mandate in 2014 saw his metamorphosis into a Vikas Purush complete. Modi also managed to change the very composition of the BJP. While the middle class was initially known as the core constituency of the BJP, through some of the government interventions like demonetisation, Modi managed to bring the poorest of poor and dispossessed into the BJP fold.

While Adityanath takes oath as the next Chief Minister of UP on Sunday, his critics and camp-followers alike would be watching if he can change his stripes and whether he can disown the patently chauvinistic slogans of his past and uphold the “sabka saath sabka vikas” slogan that has become the signature tune of the BJP, under Modi.