The Bharatiya Janata Party has released its first list of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections slated to begin next month. For quite some time now, there had been murmurs that chief minister Yogi Adityanath will contest the upcoming polls from seats that carry a lot of Sanatanic significance. These seats, from which Yogi Adityanath was rumoured to be fielded, were Ayodhya or Mathura. While in Ayodhya, the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ensured that a grand Ram Mandir is built, in Mathura, the saffron party is subtly sending signs of a Ram Mandir-like movement taking birth.
However, when the first tranche of candidates was announced on Saturday by the BJP, chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s name was found to be adjoined to the Gorakhpur Urban constituency – a traditional stronghold of the BJP since 1989. Yogi Adityanath served as the Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur constituency for five consecutive terms from 1998 to 2017.
The current MLA in this constituency is Radha Mohan Das Agarwal of the BJP. He has been the MLA from Gorakhpur Urban since 2002 and won in 2017 by over 60,000 votes. After the BJP released the first list of candidates, Yogi Adityanath thanked Prime Minister Modi and the BJP’s central leadership saying, “I am thankful to PM Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and the central parliamentary committee for fielding me from the Gorakhpur constituency. BJP works on the model of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. BJP will form the government in Uttar Pradesh with full majority.”
Opposition Runs Helter Skelter
The opposition in Uttar Pradesh is quite infantile. It takes pleasure in small things. Yogi Adityanath would have won the election from any seat the BJP would field him from. However, by fielding Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur, the BJP is making sure that it is able to maintain its dominance over the entire Purvanchal (Eastern UP) belt.
The chief minister contesting from Gorakhpur Sadar will mobilise and consolidate support for BJP across Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and will also give Yogi ample time to focus on areas like Western UP – where the Jat-Muslim factor could play spoilsport for the saffron party.
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Interestingly, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati are not even contesting the upcoming elections, and are banking on the legislative council route to remain politically relevant in the state. For people who are scared to contest any constituency in UP, it becomes a bit rich to accuse Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of settling for Gorakhpur since it is a safe seat for him and the party.
Akhilesh Yadav, for example, said, “Earlier it was said that he [Adityanath] will contest from Mathura, Prayagraj, Ayodhya or Deoband. I am happy that the BJP has already sent him home [Gorakhpur].”
Certain media outlets, meanwhile, are trying to convince the public that Yogi being fielded from Gorakhpur is a ploy of the BJP’s central leadership to clip his wings, and not outgrow Prime Minister Modi himself. These insinuations are baseless, and frankly, hilarious. Yogi Adityanath can win elections from any seat of UP, but by contesting from Gorakhpur – a seat he had to forego as a parliamentarian to become chief minister of UP – Yogi Adityanath is simply returning home. While doing so, he is strengthening BJP’s fortunes across Eastern UP.