How Yogi made Gorakhpur an impregnable saffron fort
Rubbing shoulders with havenots made him popular
Aditya Nath Yogi became a member of parliament by winning the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket. He was only 26 then. Nineteen years on, he is the chief minister of the country’s most populous state.
It has been a tremendous political journey for Aditya Nath ever since his guru Mahant Avaidyanath decided to bid adieu to active politics and appointed him his successor.
Aditya Nath tested political waters by contesting the 1998 Lok Sabha election. He defeated Samajwadi Party candidate Jamuna Nishad, who enjoyed considerable influence over backward community, by a margin of 62,007 votes.
He faced a tough contest from Nishad in the 1999 Lok Sabha election but managed to defeat him by a margin of 7,339 votes. The narrow victory margin rattled Aditya Nath and he changed his political strategy to expand his support base.
In 2004 Lok Sabha election, it appeared Nishad would pose a tough challenge to Aditya Nath but he lost the election by a margin of 1,42,013 votes. Aditya Nath again won the 2009 Lok Sabha election defeating his nearest rival Vinay Shankar Tiwari of BSP by 2,20,260 votes.
He won the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat for the fifth consecutive term in 2014 defeating his nearest rival Rajmati Nishad of SP by 1,42,309 votes. The message went to the rival parties that Aditya Nath is invincible and he has converted Gorakhpur into an impregnable fort.
But how a young mahant, considered to be a light weight in the state politics, emerged as a towering star? During the 2007 assembly election, he openly rebelled against the BJP leadership and threatened to field his candidates on assembly seats in GorakhpurBasti divisions.
The BJP leadership threatened strict action against him but Aditya Nath refused to budge. Later, the party relented and gave tickets to his supporters. Aditya Nath proved his mettle by sending maximum number of MLAs from his area while the BJP faced rout in other regions.
In 2009 Lok Sabha election, the resurgent SP and Congress grabbed maximum seats handing worst defeat to the saffron brigade. The BJP lost in its strongholds of Faizabad, Varanasi, Bareilly and Agra but Aditya Nath held his fort. Again in 2012 assembly election, when the SP swept the polls, maximum number of BJP MLAs won from east UP.
Talking to HT, political analyst Rajesh Singh said though the mahants of Gorakhnath Temple Trust, Digvijay Nath and Avaidyanath, were active in politics but Aditya Nath established himself as a people’s mahant.
“Earlier, the mahants used to attend programmes organised by top luminaries of the area but Aditya Nath broke the tradition and started attending events organised by common people, dalits and backwards. Be it marriage ceremony, other festivities or last rites, Aditya Nath was there rubbing shoulders with the have-nots,” he said.
“The visits of Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi to Dalit households is often highlighted by the media but Aditya Nath used to organise ‘shahbhoj’ (community feast) with the dalits and backwards even a decade ago,” Singh said.
He worked hard to bring the marginalised Mushahar and Vantongiya communities into the mainstream. He created a constituency among the dalits and backwards though the BSP and the SP have a strong presence in east UP.
According to Singh, Aditya Nath showed political acumen by launching the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) in 2002. “The youths who were earlier associated with gangster-turned-politician Hari Shankar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi started joining HYV. Soon he had his own network in rural areas of the district and a youth brigade to take forward his agenda,” he said.
Dwarka Tiwari an aide of Adityanath said, “He leads a simple life and the door of the mutt is open for all, be it Hindus or Muslims.” Chandra Bhusan Ankur, a faculty at Gorakhpur University, said for the people outside Gorakhpur region, Aditya Nath was a rabble-rouser and a firebrand leader taking forward the Hindutva agenda, but for the people of the region he was an educationist and a social worker too. “He has opened a chain of schools and colleges in backward areas of the district. A well-equipped modern hospital has been constructed by Aditya Nath where patient get medical treatment at nominal charges,” he said.