Yogi Adityanath

The Person

Yogi Adityanath is an Indian Hindu monk and politician. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Adityanath has served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 2017. He is the state’s longest-serving chief minister and the first to hold the office for two consecutive terms.

The Journey

Around the 1990s, he became involved in the Ayodhya Ram temple movement. During this time, he met Mahant Avaidyanath, the then-chief of the Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur, and became his disciple. He renounced his worldly life at the age of 22 and was initiated as a Hindu monk, receiving the name Yogi Adityanath. Upon Avaidyanath’s death in 2014, Adityanath was promoted to the rank of Mahant (head priest) of the Math. 

Entry into Politics and Rise

The Gorakhnath Math has a long history of political involvement. Following in the footsteps of his spiritual predecessors, Yogi Adityanath integrated his religious identity with a political career rooted in Hindutva nationalism. 

• 1998: At the age of 26, Adityanath was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) from the Gorakhpur constituency, becoming one of the youngest parliamentarians at the time.
• 1998-2017: He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for five consecutive terms from Gorakhpur, solidifying his political base in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
• 2002: He founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a youth organization known for its Hindutva activities. 

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 

Adityanath’s political journey reached a major turning point in 2017. 

• 2017: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Despite not being the official CM candidate, Adityanath was chosen by the party leadership to become the 21st Chief Minister of the state. He was sworn in on March 19, 2017, and resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.
• 2022: The BJP won the assembly elections again, and Adityanath made history by becoming the first chief minister in 37 years to be re-elected for a consecutive full five-year term.
• Current Role: He is currently the state’s longest-serving chief minister. 

As Chief Minister, he has gained a reputation for a “no-nonsense” administrative style and a tough stance on crime and the “Mafia Raj” in the state, earning him the epithet “Bulldozer Baba” from the local media. His tenure has focused on infrastructure development, attracting investment, and implementing various social welfare schemes, alongside policies rooted in his socially conservative ideology. 

The Core Message

Yogi Adityanath’s core message as a political and spiritual leader is centered on strong governance through improved law and order, a commitment to the philosophy of Hindutva and nationalistic ideals, and a focus on development and education as a path to a stronger Uttar Pradesh.

Early political career

Adityanath belongs to a specific tradition of Hindutva politics in Uttar Pradesh that can be traced back to the Mahant Digvijay Nath. Both Digvijay Nath and his successor Mahant Avaidyanath belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha and were elected to the Parliament on that party’s ticket. The head priest (Mahant) of the Gorakhnath Math, a prominent Hindu temple  Mahant Avaidyanath switched to the BJP in 1991, but nevertheless maintained significant autonomy. Four years after Adityanath was designated Avaidyanath’s successor, he was elected to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament (the Lok Sabha).Avaidyanath is known as the mentor and guru of Adityanath.Adityanath was elected as a Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur for the first time in 1998 during the  Lok Sabha at the age of 26; he was its youngest member at that time. He was elected to Parliament for five consecutive terms, that is, in the 1989, 1999, 2004,2009 and 2014 elections.

Adityanath’s attendance in the Lok Sabha was 77% and he asked 284 questions, participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member Bills in the lok sabha Adityanath had also said in the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014, that who is communal should be a topic of discussion and that whoever claims that My God, my Prophet is the most superior is communal; to say that the only people who are entitled to life are those who believe in him which is not allowed by hindu the hinduphilosophy of life the guiding principle of which is “live and let live. After his first electoral win, Adityanath started his own youth which came to be known for its activities in eastern Uttar pradesh and was instrumental in Adityanath’s meteoric rise. There have been recurrent tensions between Adityanath and the BJP leadership over the allocating election tickets. However, the BJP has not let the tensions mount because Adityanath has served as a star campaigner for the party.