1 Why has Yogi Adityanath dwarfed everyone else in UP BJP?

PARTY-WISE COMPOSITION OF CURRENT UTTAR PRADESH ASSEMBLY BY EXPERIENCE OF MLA

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a massive victory in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, winning 312 out of the 403 assembly constituencies (ACS). The current chief minister Yogi Adityanath was only named after the elections; he did not even contest on an MLA ticket. However, Adityanath has been winning as a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur continuously since 1998. His long stint as an MP is in sharp contrast to the profile of the average MLA, both within and outside the BJP, in the state.

Out of 403 elected MLAS, a staggering 314 were elected for the first time. 59 MLAS were elected for a second time and only thirty MLAS, across parties, were elected for a third time or more. The Assembly counts only 7 four-time MLAS, 2 five- and six-term MLAS and so on. This pegs Uttar Pradesh’s stable political class (defined as all politicians who have been elected more than twice) at barely 7.4% of all MLAS.

Of the 312 BJP MLAS who won their seat in the 2017 assembly election,

only 19 had won twice or more times previously. Of these 19 MLAS, 9 come from other parties, including Biharilal Arya, a five-time Congress MLA from Mauranipur, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, from Tiloi(previously elected on an SP ticket,and a BJP one before that), and Fateh Bahadur, from Caimpiyarganj, who has been party-hopping between the Congress, BJP and BSP since 1989.

The situation is not different with other parties. Only five of the current 47 SP MLAS have been elected more than twice, a score also held by 3 of the 19 BSP MLAS, and Raghuraj Pratap Singh, aka ‘Raja Bhaiya’, who won from Kunda as an Independent candidate.