UP CM Yogi Adityanath's choice is likely to temper rather than aggravate the Hindutva agenda

BJP’s choice of Yogi Adityanath to become Uttar Pradesh chief minister is likely to temper rather than aggravate the Hindutva agenda that is a necessary concomitant of any BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh. He is as hard-line as it gets and directly controls the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a potential source of Hindutva excess.

As chief minister, his job is to match, come 2019, the 2014 record of sending 73 Modi-supporting MPs to Parliament. Failure to meet that target is his biggest concern, and for that, he has to govern and not set loose Hindutva hordes and produce chaos in the state.

Any BJP-led state government of UP would find it next to impossible to act against the Yogi and his supporters, if they took it into their head to run with the Hindutva ball while their party was in power. A rampaging Yogi would have derailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of producing a new development paradigm in Uttar Pradesh, that would both cement political support by 2019 and raise the rate of growth of the Indian economy as a whole.


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A Yogi inside the government and sharing the responsibility to produce good governance and growth is preferable, by far, to a sidelined Yogi skulking in the shadows and waiting for an opportunity to strike. And if Yogi has to be inside the government, there is no way he would accept anything less than the chief ministership, unless the government were to be led by a senior leader like Rajnath Singh. Hence, Yogi’s choice as chief minister.

He comes with two deputy chief ministers in tow, to appease expectations of power sharing by Brahmins and the non-Yadav backward castes. Expect a fair sprinkling of Dalits in the ministry.

Long before polling began in UP, Lucknow’s chilly air was thick with the rumour that Yogi Adityanath and his followers were miffed at his not being given due recognition in the BJP’s election campaign. While he was listed among the BJP’s star campaigners, he was kept out of the election management committee.

Also Read: Two deputy CMs of Uttar Pradesh to balance work, caste equation

And his picture did not appear on as many election posters as his eminence warranted, while those of Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti did. The Vahini even fielded some candidates of their own. Till, of course, the Yogi was mollified by the BJP leadership.

Modi had not included five-term MP Adityanath in his cabinet. A clear sign that he did not credit him with much administrative acumen. Yet, he has been chosen to run the biggest and politically most crucial state of the country.

This demonstrates two things: one, Modi’s control of the party is not as absolute as his stature might suggest; and, two, he knows how to make the best out of a bad situation. Neither is a bad thing.