UP CM Yogi Adityanath's Hindutva agenda falls flat
New Delhi: The Hindutva poster boy, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath, has proved to be a failure as far as the results of Assembly polls go.
Despite being used extensively across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana where he addressed approximately 75 rallies, Yogi has proved to be ineffective in garnering
Hindutva votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates.
Sources stated that BJP’s campaign managers had thronged with requests to schedule Yogi’s rallies in their constituencies during the recently concluded Assembly polls.
And the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and the respective chief ministers of these states to have been on such extensive campaign trails. It is understood that the party had deployed Yogi for his ability to garner the voters through his Hindutva brand of politics. The saffron robed chief minister was being utilised fot polarisation of Hindu voters and to get them to vote for the BJP considering the fact that the party had incumbent governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Yogi was considered to be important in the scheme of things as he heads the powerful Nath sect of ascetics.
There has been a craze to get controversial hardline Hindutva leader as one of the campaigners and plans are drawn to utilise the chief minister with staunch Hindu image.
The party wanted to utilise his ability to consolidate Hindu votes in favour of BJP. The attraction, say BJP leaders is Yogi’s ability to create controversy without effort.
The candidates also love him for his ability to draw the crowd and media alike. The BJP had deployed its star campaigner Yogi Adityanath in these state where the party was trying to retain a foothold. During the poll campaign, Adityanath also delivered controversial statements in an attempt to polarise voters.
However, these attempts at reaching out to the staunch Hindu voters and polarisation seemes to have failed and there is likley to be a rethink in the party over the deployment of Yogi in future polls, sources added.
The campaigining saw Yogi stoking controversies with his rabble-rousing speeches. In Rajasthan, he threatened terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar of another surgical strike if he made any threats about the Ram temple. His alleged declaration of Lord Hanuman as a Dalit also appeared to have cost the BJP many votes.