Right-wing extremist BJP leader and five-time Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath is all set to head the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP have won 312 seats, while its allies 13 seats, taking the NDA tally to a whopping 325 in the 403 member assembly.
Let’s have a look at some interesting facts about Yogi Adityanath:
1. Yogi Adityanath was elected as the Member of the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 from Gorakhpur constituency. He was the youngest member of the Lok Sabha. So far he has been MP from the same Gorakhpur constituency five times.
In 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Adityanath won the elections by a margin of a massive 1, 42,309 votes. He is quite a popular politician of his constituency. He didn’t require PM Narendra Modi wave to cling on to his seat.
Adityanath is often caught in controversy from his furious speeches but that is what makes him a favourite. Adityanath is the successor to former Hindu Maha Sabha president Mahant Avaidyanath.
2. Adityanath’s predecessor Mahant Avaidyanath was the president of Hindu Maha Sabha. Both of them kept Hindutva agenda in the forefront of their election campaign every time. His mission in life is to convert all the other religious groups back to Hinduism.
In 2005, more than 5,000 people were converted in the town of Etah in UP. He reportedly said: “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu Rashtra”. Adityanath has often been caught in controversies because of his hardline stand on Hindutva.
Every time his margin of victory kept on increasing dramatically due to his popularity and influence among his electorate.
3. Adityanath’s original name was Ajay Singh. He changed his name after becoming a ‘Sanyasi’. He has got a degree of B.Sc. from HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand. He is a very good orator and has the ability to raise eyebrows from all around the country. He has been quite vocal in the Parliament and has been raising issues with alacrity. It’s not that he raises issues related to Hindutva only.
In fact, he has been equally concerned about issues that have the potential of impacting the lives of the poorer strata of the society. When he speaks in the Parliament, his opponents try to interrupt him all the time but Yogi Adityanath goes on to make his point without being bothered about the opposition.