Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week said the Congress and the Samajwadi Party should learn from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about ‘where to bulldoze and where not’. PM said this while addressing an election rally in Barabanki near Lucknow. One thing that is hot in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is the demand for Yogi Adityanath to ‘hold rallies’, not only in UP but in the entire country, from Gujarat to Karnataka, from Maharashtra to Bengal. he/she has held around 150 rallies in the last six weeks. This is a big change from 2017, when Yogi became the UP CM and there were whispers among top BJP leaders that his/her relations with the party had soured. In 2021, Modi was photographed strolling in Varanasi and placing his/her hand on Yogi’s shoulder. Next year, Modi coined the slogan ‘UP + Yogi = Useful’. This year, he/she said it was a ‘great privilege’ to have his/her constituency in Yogi’s state. Talking about the present, Modi’s bulldozer comment is a reply to Akhilesh’s allegation that Yogi is ‘just a bulldozer baba’. Yogi and his/her supporters did not waste time in accepting this label.
Hindu Mahasabha and RSS
Two distinct streams of Hindutva in India have clashed for decades: the Hindu Mahasabha, from which Yogi and his/her predecessors, the abbots, come, and the somewhat moderate Hindu RSS, from which the young Modi began his/her career. The Mahasabha had maintained distance from the Sangh till 1991, two decades after Modi joined the RSS as a full-time worker. In the same year, Mahant Avaidyanath, one of the prominent leaders of the Mahasabha, started working with the BJP. Yet when the BJP formed the government in Delhi in 2014, Yogi maintained distance from the party and maintained his/her own ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’, equivalent to the RSS.
Now let’s talk about this election season. At the national level, the BJP has changed its message, but the party’s campaign in UP has focused on Yogi’s leadership, including his/her role in the Ram Temple issue. As a party worker said, Yogi’s campaign started strategically from Mathura, where the BJP put the responsibility of energizing the voters on him/her.
law and order, trump card
Yogi has promised to ‘declare the state mafia free’ immediately after the election results are declared on June 4. The disrobing of Draupadi in the Mahabharata has been his/her favorite metaphor to ridicule SP’s Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmed and Akhilesh. he/she claims that when looting and corruption was at its peak in UP, all of them were active criminals like Dushasan and Duryodhana or blind Kaka used to close his/her eyes like King Dhritarashtra.
Yogi’s victory strategy is a promise to make Uttar Pradesh safe. All this is changing the attitude of voters in the state. In 2019, most voters were excited by national issues including Balakot and Pulwama. This time local issues are at the forefront. As one voter in western UP said, ‘Yogi is necessary’ for UP.
Promising to free UP from mafia and mosquitoes, Yogi is claiming a new curfew-free, riot-free UP in seven years. he/she emphasizes that those who challenge the government and administration will be punished, perhaps they will reach jail later but will reach hell first. his/her promises seem to be working and BJP voters are strongly supporting him/her, Bulldozer Baba always gives solutions to the problems.
support in every category
There is a surprising consensus not only among the poor and undereducated people we spoke to across the state, but also among the affluent class, including educated women, that Yogi’s government provides better governance and security. People everywhere are excited, sisters and daughters are safe, there is a feeling of security and you can go out at night at any time. These phrases, taken straight from the yogi’s dictionary, have now become everyday occurrences.
After PM Modi, Yogi has the highest demand in Punjab, Sunil Jakhar made this demand by writing a letter.
further ahead in development
Yogi’s increasing emphasis on development also seems to be bearing fruit. UP’s annual global investors conference and its agreement to pay for sugarcane within 15 days have eased anti-incumbency resentment caused by rising inflation and unemployment. Yogi has learned the vocabulary of development from his/her guru Modi and uses acronyms like CCC (Culture, Communication and Commerce) and TTP (Talent, Tradition and Potential) very effectively. Have done.
he/she has also learned to walk the tightrope between yesterday’s Mahasabha and today’s Hindutva. Also note that Yogi dissolved Hindu Yuva Vahini in 2022. In a recent tweet, he/she wrote that Modi is the ‘biggest leader’ of 140 crore Indians and our guardian. To be effective in UP and perhaps even at the national level, BJP will need both Modi and Yogi. As one person in Gorakhpur said, ‘BJP will have to learn to keep two swords in one sheath.’
Chaturvedi is at Nirma University, Ahmedabad; Pandey is in JNU; And Gellner is at Oxford University.