Yogi may upset BJP's applecart in UP elections

NEW DELHI: With an angry Yogi Adityanath deciding to field his own candidates in several constituencies falling in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the BJP’s attempts to better its prospects in the coming assembly polls is certain to suffer a huge setback.

Worried over the fallout of Yogi’s decision on their party’s prospects, the state BJP leadership has doubled its efforts to mollify the Gorakhpur MP. “Talks are on with him and we hope that the matter will be resolved soon,” state BJP chief Kesri Nath Tripathi said in Lucknow on Sunday.

The BJP leadership has reasons to be wary of the Yogi’s gameplan. As heir-apparent to Mahant Avaidyanth, the head priest of the Gorakhpur-based Gorakhnath Math who’s also a leading light of the VHP, he enjoys tremendous clout in eastern UP.

The junior mahant’s popularity was on full display in the aftermath of his arrest towards the end of January after the outbreak of communal riots in Gorakhpur. Protests against the district administration’s perceived high-handedness started almost immediately, soon spreading to other parts of eastern UP.

The Yogi, not surprisingly, has emerged as the main rallying point for anti-Mulayam forces in the region —a factor that the BJP, most political observers agree, can ignore at its own peril.

The third-term MP had late last week resigned from the BJP’s national executive in protest against the “humiliation” meted out to him by the state leadership. The Yogi, it is learnt, had demanded 22 seats for his followers — a demand that was turned down.

He susequently decided to express his indignation by quitting the BJP’s national executive and fielding his own nominees against the party’s official candidates in and around Gorakhpur.

That is a prospect that the BJP brass may not relish. Having succeeded in projecting himself as a hero among those opposed to the SP and its “appeasement politics”, Yogi is in a position to wreck BJP’s chances in the region.

The BJP leadership is also alarmed over reports that former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti had made common cause with the Gorakhpur MP. A jittery BJP leadership has now opened channels of communication with the senior Mahant (Avaidyanath) to impress upon him the need to persuade Yogi from pursuing a ``mutually-destructive’’ course.