Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Yogi Adityanath: A Hindu Monk Turned Politician
Yogi Adityanath (born Ajay Mohan Bisht; 5 June 1972) is an Indian Hindu monk and politician who has served as Uttar Pradesh's 22nd and current Chief Minister since 19 March 2017. On March 26, 2017, he was named Chief Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2017 State Assembly elections, and he was a key campaigner. Since 1998, he has served as the Member of Parliament for the Gorakhpur seat in Uttar Pradesh for five consecutive terms.
With the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has provided political history in the state. Yogi Adityanath has become Uttar Pradesh's first chief minister to return to power after serving a complete five-year term.
However, four chief ministers have taken power in Uttar Pradesh in the past, but none of them served a complete five-year tenure. In 1985, Narayan Dutt Tiwari became the last Uttar Pradesh (undivided) chief minister to secure two consecutive terms. Yogi Adityanath is the first chief minister in 37 years to maintain power.
Mahant or Chief Priest of the Gorakhnath Math
Yogi Adityanath
Yogi Adityanath is also the mahant or chief priest of the Gorakhnath Math, a Hindu temple in Gorakhpur, a role he has held since the September 2014 death of his spiritual "father," Mahant Avaidyanath. He is also the founder of the Hindu nationalist organization Hindu Yuva Vahini. He is portrayed as a Hindu nationalist and a right-wing populist.
Yogi Adityanath Education Background
Yogi Adityanath was born on June 5, 1972, as Ajay Mohan Bisht in the hamlet of Panchur, Pauri Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand). Anand Singh Bisht, his late father, was a forest ranger. He was the family's second child, after four brothers and three sisters. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Uttarakhand's Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
Around the 1990s, he left his family to support the Ayodhya Ram temple campaign. He became a devotee of Mahant Avaidyanath, the leader of the Gorakhnath Math, about this period. Adityanath frequently visited his home village following his initiation while residing in Gorakhpur, where he established a school in 1998.
Following the death of Aavaidyanath on September 12, 2014, Yogi Adityanath was raised to the post of Mahant or top priest of the Gorakhnath Math. A few days later, he was appointed Peethadhishwar (Head Seer) of the Math during customary Nath sect rites.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Yogi Adityanath Political Career
At the age of 26, Adityanath was the 12th Lok Sabha's youngest member. He was elected to the Gorakhpur Legislative Assembly for five consecutive years (in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014 elections). In the 16th Lok Sabha, Adityanath had a 77 percent attendance rate, and he submitted 284 questions, participated in 56 debates, and introduced three private member Bills.
For more than a decade, Adityanath has had tense relations with the BJP. He frequently mocked and criticized the BJP, attacking its diluted Hindutva philosophy. Having created his independent power base in Eastern Uttar Pradesh with the assistance of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and the Gorakhnath Math, he felt confident in his ability to impose his will on the BJP. When he felt his voice was not being heard, he rebelled by nominating candidates against the official BJP candidates.
Adityanath was one among numerous BJP MPs who disobeyed the leadership of the party on the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament in March 2010. In the 2018 Rajasthan state assembly election, he campaigned for BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj.
