Yogi Adityanath | |
---|---|
21st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh | |
Assumed office 19 March 2017 | |
Governor | Ram Naik Anandiben Patel (Incumbent) |
Deputy | Brajesh Pathak (2022–present) Keshav Prasad Maurya (2017–present) Dinesh Sharma (2017–2022) |
Departments |
|
Preceded by | Akhilesh Yadav |
Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly | |
Assumed office 10 March 2022 | |
Preceded by | Radha Mohan Das Agarwal |
Constituency | Gorakhpur Urban |
Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council | |
In office 18 September 2017 –22 March 2022 | |
Preceded by | Yashwant Singh |
Succeeded by | Daya Shankar Mishra |
Constituency | Elected by members of the UPLA |
Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha | |
In office 5 October 1998 –21 September 2017 | |
Preceded by | Mahant Avaidyanath |
Succeeded by | Praveen Kumar Nishad |
Constituency | Gorakhpur |
Personal details | |
Born | Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht [1] 5 June 1972 Panchur,Pauri Garhwal district,Uttar Pradesh,India |
Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
Residence(s) | 5,Kalidas Marg,Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh,India |
Alma mater | Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (BSc,Mathematics) |
Occupation |
|
Cabinet | |
Website | www |
Personal | |
Religion | Hinduism |
Denomination | Shaivism |
School | Yoga |
Lineage | Guru Gorakhnath |
Sect | Nath Sampradaya |
Temple | Gorakhnath Math |
Religious career | |
Guru | Mahant Avaidyanath |
Period in office | 2014–present |
Predecessor | Mahant Avaidyanath |
Ordination | 12 September 2014 |
Post | Mahant |
Yogi Adityanath (born Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht; 5 June 1972) [6] [1] [7] [lower-alpha 1] [9] is an Indian Hindu monk and politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been serving as the 21st and current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 19 March 2017. He is the longest serving chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who is currently running his tenure for over six years, surpassing Sampurnanand. [10]
He is currently representing Gorakhpur Urban constituency in the legislative assembly since 2022 and was a member of the legislative council from 2017 to 2022. He resigned from the upper house after being elected to the lower house. He is a former Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur constituency, Uttar Pradesh from 1998 to 2017 before he resigned to become the chief minister and elected to state legislature. [11]
Adityanath is also the mahant (head priest) of the Gorakhnath Math, a Hindu monastery in Gorakhpur, a position he has held since September 2014 following the death of Mahant Avaidyanath, his spiritual "father". [12] He is the founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini, a Hindu nationalist organisation. [13] [14] He has an image of a Hindutva nationalist and a social conservative. [1] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Yogi Adityanath was born as Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the village of Panchur, in Pauri Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand) in a Rajput family. [1] [7] [19] [20] [21] His late father, Anand Singh Bisht, was a forest ranger. [lower-alpha 2] He was the second born in the family, among four brothers and three sisters. [24] He completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand. [25] [26]
He left his home around the 1990s to join the Ayodhya Ram temple movement. Around that time, he also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief of the Gorakhnath Math. [25] Mahant Avaidyanath was leading the Ayodhya Ram temple movement at that time. While based in Gorakhpur after his initiation, Adityanath has often visited his ancestral village, establishing a school there in 1998. [24]
Adityanath was promoted to the rank of Mahant or high priest of the Gorakhnath Math after the death of Avaidyanath on 12 September 2014. He was made Peethadhishwar (Head Seer) of the Math amid traditional rituals of the Nath sect two days later. [27]
Yogi Adityanath belongs to a specific tradition of Hindutva politics in Uttar Pradesh that can be traced back to the Mahant Digvijay Nath, who led the placing of idols in the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 22 December 1949. [28] [29] Both Digvijay Nath and his successor Avaidyanath belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha and were elected to the Parliament on that party's ticket. After the BJP and the Sangh Parivar joined the Ayodhya movement in the 1980s, the two strands of Hindu nationalism came together. 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). [28]
After his first electoral win, Adityanath started his own youth organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini, which came to be known for its activities in the eastern Uttar Pradesh and was instrumental in Adityanath's meteoric rise. There have been recurrent tensions between Adityanath and the BJP leadership over the allocation of election tickets. However, the BJP has not let the tensions mount because Adityanath has served as a star campaigner for the party. [28] [30] [31]
In 2006, he took up links between Nepali Maoists and Indian Leftist parties as a key campaign issue and encouraged Madhesi leaders to oppose Maoism in Nepal. [13] [32] In 2008, his convoy was reportedly attacked while en route to Azamgarh for an anti-terrorism rally. The attack left one person dead and at least six persons injured. [33] [34]
In January 2007, Adityanath with other BJP leaders had gathered to mourn the death of a man who was killed because of religious violence. He and his supporters were subsequently arrested by the police and lodged in Gorkhapur jail on the charges of disturbing peace and violating prohibitory orders. His arrest led to further unrest during which several coaches of the Mumbai bound Mumbai–Gorakhpur Godan Express were burnt, allegedly by protesting Hindu Yuva Vahini activists. [35] [36] [37] The day after the arrest, the District Magistrate and the local police chief were transferred and replaced. [38]
When elected to the 12th Lok Sabha at age of 26, Adityanath was its youngest member. He was elected to the Parliament from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms (in the 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections). [9] [39]
Adityanath's attendance in Lok Sabha was 77% and he asked 284 questions, participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member Bills in the 16th Lok Sabha. [40]
It is said that Adityanath once stated: "If one Hindu girl marries a Muslim man, then we will take 100 Muslim girls in return … If they kill one Hindu man, then we will kill 100 Muslim men." [41] [42]
Adityanath has had strained relations with the BJP for more than a decade[ when? ]. [43] He often derided and undermined the BJP, criticising its dilution of the Hindutva ideology. [44] Having established his own independent power base in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, with the support of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and the Gorakhnath Math, he felt confident to be able to dictate terms to the BJP. [45] When his voice was not heard, he revolted by fielding candidates against the official BJP candidates. The most prominent example was the fielding of Radha Mohan Das Agarwal from Gorakhpur on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket in 2002, who then defeated BJP Cabinet minister, Shiv Pratap Shukla by a wide margin. [44] In 2007, Adityanath threatened to field 70 candidates for the state assembly against the BJP candidates. But he reached a compromise in the end. [46] [47] [48] In 2009 Parliamentary elections, Adityanath was rumoured to have campaigned against the BJP candidates who were then defeated. [44]
Despite his periodic revolts, Yogi Adityanath has been kept in good humour by the RSS and the BJP leaders. The deputy prime minister L. K. Advani, the RSS chief Rajendra Singh and the VHP chief Ashok Singhal have visited him in Gorakhpur. During 22–24 December 2006, Adityanath organised a three-day Virat Hindu Mahasammelan at Gorakhpur at the same time as the BJP National Executive Meet in Lucknow. Despite the conflict, several RSS and VHP leaders attended the Mahasammelan, which issued a commitment to pursue the Hindutva goals despite the BJP's claimed "abandonment" of them. [44] [49]
In March 2010, Adityanath was one of several BJP MPs who defied the party whip on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament. [50] [51]
In 2018, he campaigned for BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj for Rajasthan state assembly election. [52]
Adityanath was a prominent campaigner for the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state government appointed him Chief Minister on 18 March 2017; [53] he was sworn in the next day, after the BJP won the assembly elections. [54] [55] [56]
After becoming the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath kept around 36 ministries under his direct control, including Home, Housing, Town and country planning department, Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies, Food Security and drug administration, Economics and statistics, Mines and Minerals, Flood control, Stamp and registry, Prison, General administration, Secretariat administration, Vigilance, Personnel and appointment, Information, Institutional finance, Planning, Estate department, Urban land, UP state reorganisation committee, Administration reforms, Programme implementation, National integration, Infrastructure, Coordination, Language, External aided project, Relief and Rehabilitation, Public Service Management, Rent Control, Consumer protection and Weights and measures. [57] [58]
In his first cabinet meeting, held on 4 April 2017, the decision was taken to forgive loans to nearly 87 lakh (8,700,000) small and marginal farmers of Uttar Pradesh, amounting to ₹363.59 billion (US$4.6 billion). [59] [60] For India's Independence Day celebrations in 2017, his government singled out Muslim religious schools, requiring them to provide video evidence that their students had sung the Indian national anthem. [61]
In 2017, his government ordered withdrawal of around 20,000 "politically motivated" cases, including those against himself and other politicians. [62]
Adityanath ordered the forming of quasi-vigilante anti-"romeo" squads. [63] He imposed a blanket ban on cow-smuggling and a stay on UPPSC civil service exam results, exams and interviews until further order. [64] He imposed a ban on the vices of tobacco, paan and gutka in government offices across the state, and compelled officials to pledge to devote 100 hours every year for the Swachh Bharat Mission. [65] More than 100 "black sheep" policemen were suspended by the Uttar Pradesh police. [66]
Since 2017, Adityanath had ordered the closing of many slaughterhouses. As a direct consequence, the tanneries that sourced raw leather from the slaughterhouses were impacted. Several tanneries were also ordered to be shut down. The tannery industry was estimated to be worth 50,0000 crore ₹ in 2017. The industry directly or indirectly gave employment to more than 10 lakh people. Since 2018, through executive orders, CM Adityanath had closed around 200 tanneries out of more than 400 that were active in Jajamau, Kanpur. [67]
In the first 10 months of his first term, he conducted four police encounters per day. [68] National human rights commission issued a notice to the state government and a bench of three judges from the Supreme Court of India warned and issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government in this case. [69] [70]
Committee Against Assault on Journalists found that 138 cases of persecution of journalists were registered under Yogi Adityanath's term in Uttar Pradesh between 2017 and February 2022. [71]
After the Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Uttar Pradesh, he put up hoardings with names, photographs and addresses of protestors. Only after the order of the High Court, which called his government's action "shameless" and an "unwarranted interference in privacy", the posters were removed. [72] [73]
In July 2018, Adityanath, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Moon Jae-in, president of South Korea, inaugurated the world's largest smartphone manufacturing factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. [74] His government was credited for making 50 megawatts of power and a 22-kilometre-long (14 mi) electricity line in a record four months for the Samsung mobile plant. [75] [76]
In November 2019, Uttar Pradesh government along with Ministry of Defense laid the foundation stone of Defence Industrial Corridor project in Jhansi. [77] Yogi Adityanath held consultations with private firms in order to increase private investment in the defence corridor project. [78]
The New York Times relayed analysts' estimations of Adityanath as a candidate for Prime Minister of India in 2024, provided he "delivers on some fronts"[ which? ]. [79] In August 2020, India Today 's "Mood of the nation" survey showed Adityanath as the best-performing chief minister in India. [80]
In September 2020, Adityanath asked his government to devise a strategy to prevent "religious conversions in the name of love", and even considered passing an ordinance for the same if needed. [81] [82] On 31 October, Adityanath announced that a Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 to curb "Love Jihad" [lower-alpha 3] would be passed by his government.
The Uttar Pradesh state cabinet cleared Adityanath's ordinance on 24 November 2020. following which it was approved and signed by state Governor Anandiben Patel on 28 November 2020. [84] [85]
In July 2021, Adityanath introduced the UP population control draft bill 2021–2030. On the event of World Population Day, the chief minister unveiled the policy on reducing the population growth for the forthcoming years. There were also several benefits announced based on the laid single child and two-child policies. [86] He said the state population policy focused on efforts to increase the accessibility of contraceptive measures issued under the Family Planning Programme and provide a proper system for safe abortion. [87] This policy also received lots of reactions and criticisms from other political parties. It was said that this policy mainly focused on the upcoming general elections in the state. The opposition Congress in the state has called it a "political agenda" and the Samajwadi Party said it is "murder of democracy". [88] [89]
On 10 March 2022, with the announcement of the legislative assembly results, BJP-led NDA alliance secured 273 seats with Adityanath winning his second term. He and his party wrote history, being the first chief minister to return to power after completing a full 5-year term in office. The BJP is also the first party to return to power consecutively after 37 years. [90] [91] He was only the third chief minister, in Uttar Pradesh's political history to complete a full 5-year term as the chief minister of the state after Mayawati of BSP and Akhilesh Yadav belonging to the Samajwadi Party. [91]
In the buildup to the assembly elections, Adityanath successfully used a campaign with a bulldozer as its main image, earning him the nickname "Bulldozer Baba". [92] [93] The term had initially been used as a taunt by an opposition party. [94] His speeches during the polls included hate speeches against Muslims, promoting religious polarisation and Hindu supremacy. Further, his speeches included the idea that rights of Hindus are at odds with that of Muslims, where he repeatedly conflated Muslims with terrorists and criminals, and the opposition parties as appeasers of Muslims. [95]
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The Gorakhnath Math, also known as Gorakhnath Temple or Shri Gorakhnath Mandir, is a temple of the Nath monastic order group of the Nath tradition. The name Gorakhnath derives from the medieval saint, Gorakshanath, a yogi who travelled widely across India and authored a number of texts that form a part of the canon of Nath Sampradaya. The Nath tradition was founded by guru Matsyendranath. This math is situated in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India within large premises. The temple performs various cultural and social activities and serves as the cultural hub of the city.
Kalyan Singh was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. He is considered an icon of Hindu nationalism, and of the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Hindu Yuva Vahini was a Hindu youth religious group, incorporated by Yogi Adityanath, intended successor of the Gorakhpur Mutt temple in Gorakhpur, India. The group was founded in April 2002, on the day of Rama Navami by Yogi Adityanath.
Gorakhpur Airport, officially Mahayogi Gorakhnath Airport, is a domestic airport and an Indian Air Force base serving the city of Gorakhpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) operates it as a civil enclave at the Air Force base. The airport is located 8 km (5.0 mi) from the city centre. The airport covers an area of 0.71 acres (0.29 ha). In June 2017, the passenger terminal was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath.
Dinesh Sharma is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. He was the Deputy Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2017 to 2022. He was previously the mayor of Lucknow. A professor by profession, he is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and he has held various posts in the party.
Mahant Avaidyanath was an Indian politician and Hindu preacher. He was the Mahant of Gorakhnath Math, succeeding his guru Digvijay Nath. He was also a politician of the Hindu Mahasabha and, later Bharatiya Janata Party, being elected to the Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur four times. He played an important role in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He was the mentor and guru of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Keshav Prasad Maurya is an Indian politician, currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Maurya was associated with a right-wing Hindu organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, before entering active politics through BJP. He was also involved in cow protectionism in his early life. Before 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections, he was made state president of the BJP, and after the victory of BJP, he was appointed as Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the first Yogi Adityanath Government. Maurya again contested the legislative assembly elections in 2022 from Sirathu Assembly constituency, losing to Pallavi Patel of Samajwadi Party. However, he was given a second term as Deputy CM in the second Yogi Adityanath government.
Purvanchal Expressway is a 340.8 km long, 6-lane wide access-controlled expressway in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The expressway connects Chand Saray village near Gosainganj in Lucknow district with Haydaria village on NH-31 in Ghazipur district. It is developed by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA). The Purvanchal Expressway has a 3.2 km long airstrip at Akhalkiri Karwat village near Kurebhar in Sultanpur district for emergency landing of aircraft. The construction work was started by the UPEIDA on 10 October 2018 and was inaugurated and opened to the public on 16 November 2021.
Swami Prasad Maurya is an Indian politician and was a member of the 17th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh of India. He represented the Padrauna constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He was a member of Samajwadi Party till 2024 to which he resigned. Maurya has been a Member of the legislative assembly for five terms, has been a minister in the government of Uttar Pradesh, Leader of the house, and Leader of the opposition. He was serving as Cabinet Minister for Labour, Employment and Co-ordination in Yogi Adityanath ministry. Until 2021, he was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party which he joined after a long stint with Bahujan Samaj Party.
Vijay Bahadur Yadav is an Indian politician and a member in 15th and 16th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh of India. Since 2012, he represents Gorakhpur Rural as a member of Samajwadi Party. Earlier he represented Maniram in 2007–2012 as Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ashutosh Tandon, also known as Gopal Tandon, was an Indian politician and was Minister of Urban Development, Overall Urban Development, Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Tandon was also a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Lucknow East constituency in Lucknow district. He was son of BJP's senior leader and former Governor of Madhya Pradesh Lal Ji Tandon.
Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal is National General Secretary of Bhartiya Janta party and a Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh since July 5, 2022. and was a member of the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. Since 2002, he has represented Gorakhpur Urban as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mohsin Raza is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He is the Minister of State for Minority Welfare Muslim Waqf and Hajj of the state in the Yogi Adityanath ministry.
Gorakhpur Urban is a constituency of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly covering the city of Gorakhpur Urban in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India.
The Monk Who Became Chief Minister : The Definitive Biography Of Yogi Adityanath is a biography of Yogi Adityanath, the 22nd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It is written by Shantanu Gupta, an Indian Author and Political Analyst. The book has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing, India and came out on 25 August 2017. The cover of the biography was released on 23 July 2017 at an event of CREDAI at Lucknow.
Many child deaths occurred at the state-run BRD Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur city of Uttar Pradesh, India in 2017. As of 2 September 2017, 1,317 children had died at the hospital in 2017. The 2017 deaths attracted national attention in August, when 63 children died at the hospital after the hospital's piped oxygen supply ran out. The number of child deaths in previous years were 5,850 in 2014; 6,917 in 2015; and 6,121 in 2016.
Bipin Singh is an Indian politician and a member of 17th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh of India. He represents the Gorakhpur Rural in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh and is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath AYUSH University, Gorakhpur, formerly State Ayush University, Uttar Pradesh, is an affiliating State University located in Gorakhpur. It was established through the Uttar Pradesh Act No. 6 of 2020, specializing in Ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy (AYUSH). It was renamed as Maha Yogi Guru Gorakhnath AYUSH University, Gorakhpur by the Uttar Pradesh Act No. 6 of 2021.
The bulldozer found its way into the election and political lexicon of Uttar Pradesh and further across India after its massive political use by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath of the BJP. While bulldozers are routinely used across India to remove illegal constructions, the bulldozer in this case has been used as an extrajudicial tool and a power statement against criminals, communal violence rioters and accused criminals. Following its usage in political messaging in Uttar Pradesh, the bulldozer was used in Madhya Pradesh to convey political messages aimed at showing a strong stance against criminals. Narratives conveyed that a lot of the usage of the bulldozer was itself communal in nature. Critics argue that giving up on the rule of law and adopting "bulldozer justice" is the initial move toward an authoritarian society. In such a society, the safety, life, and liberty of individuals would depend on the arbitrary decisions of state officials.
Danish Azad Ansari is an Indian politician, social worker, and member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council since 2022. He is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party.
Adityanath, born Ajay Singh Bisht, found his vocation in college as an activist in the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization.
The son of a forest ranger, Yogi Adityanath was born in 1972 in Garhwal (which was then in Uttar Pradesh but is now in Uttarakhand state) and was named Ajay Singh Bisht.
Born Ajay Singh Bisht in Pauri Garhwal's Panchur (now Uttarakhand), on June 5, 1972
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: others (link){{cite news}}
: Check |archive-url=
value (help){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)