'Yogiland' (around Gorakhpur) in firm control of Hindutva peddler Adityanath

From: Indian Express

Yogiland test for man who’d ‘wield power’

Thu Feb 09 2012, 00:29 hrs

When L K Advani arrived at Pathardeva last week to launch state BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi’s campaign, he was greeted with chants of “Advani, Shahi zindabad” as he walked from the helipad to the dais.

Pathardeva is part of what is commonly known as “Yogiland” in the region’s political lexicon, and the slogan sought to drive home a message — about Shahi’s newfound stature as state party president. On Tuesday, the party’s national president Nitin Gadkari, too, came to campaign for Shahi, and said that if the BJP gets a majority, “Shahi will wield the power”.

But “Yogiland” is one area — in eastern UP around Gorakhpur — that firebrand MP Yogi Adityanath likes to handle independently. A favourite slogan of Yogi’s supporters is “Gorakhpur mein rahna hai to Yogi, Yogi kahna hai” (If you want to stay in Gorakhpur, you have to chant Yogi, Yogi).

Pathardeva is about 50 km from the Gorakhnath temple from where Yogi controls his own “Hindutva forces” under the banner of his Hindu Yuva Vahini in about 10 districts. To Yogi’s camp, Shahi is an intruder; a man under the Vahini banner, displaying Yogi’s photo on his campaign vehicles, is in the fray against him.

Nevertheless, the BJP has gone to great lengths to persuade Yogi to start campaigning for party candidates. It has also provided him a helicopter. Yogi had withdrawn from the campaign in protest against against the induction of Mayawati’s former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the BJP, and blamed Shahi for it.

But he had another grievance: that the party had ignored many of his recommendations while allotting tickets in Yogiland.

So, while Advani, Gadkari and other BJP leaders are campaigning for Shahi, Yogi is concentrating only on the constituencies in which the BJP has given tickets to his hardcore supporters, all members of his Hindu Yuva Vahini.

Shahi’s fortunes now depend on how much his new post, and his projection as a future wielder of power, work in his favour in his constituency. His supporters project him as “next powerful Vir Bahadur Singh of Poorvanchal region”, a reference to a former Congress chief minster. That is the last thing Yogi would want.

Yogi’s sweet-and-sour relations with the BJP have been an old story. In every election, Yogi gets angry with the BJP when he seeks to get party tickets for his supporters. Usually, the BJP bows, though not all the way. “His one quality is that he not only arranges party tickets for his supporters, but also makes efforts to ensure their victory,” says a BJP leader.

This time, too, Yogi has got a BJP ticket for a number of his supporters. They include Radha Mohan Das Agrawal in Gorakhpur City, Vijay Bahadur Yadav in Gorakhpur Rural, Raghuvendra Pratap Singh in Domariyaganj, Radheshyam Singh in Pipraich, Brajesh Uadav in Kampierganj, Ashwini Shukla in Sahjanwan and Rakesh Singh Baghel in Mehdawal.

Over the years, Yogi’s assertive politics has put a check on the growth not only of the BJP but also of all other pro-Hindutva forces, including the RSS, in eastern UP.

During the time of his predecessors Mahant Digvijaynath and Mahant Avaidyanath, it was easy for the RSS to expand its base at ground level. “Gorakhnath temple is a highly respected religious seat; the RSS gave it all respect and worked with the patronage of the temple in this area,” a source in the local BJP says. “But Yogi Adityanath has changed this with his expansionist policy.”

The dwindling popularity of the RSS among the youth in the region has remained a major source of worry for the organisation. Its chief Mohan Bhagwat has spent much time in Gorakhpurof late. The RSS decision to select Gorakhpur as the venue for its national executive last year clearly reflected its concerns for reviving its old bases.

Talking to this reporter, Yogi refuses to admit that his aggressive approach means trouble for RSS. “We are working for the same cause, our ideology is the same,” Yogi says.

Yogi also matters for other political parties in the region. “His presence always helps the SP and the BSP benefit from the polarisation of Muslim votes in any election. While the BJP has remained at third place, the BSP and the SP have always bagged a good number of seats in this region,” a party leader says.

Of the 42 seats in Gorakhpur and Basti, the BSP and SP had bagged 15 each in 2007 . The Congress got four and an Independent one. Of the seven BJP winners, four had been chosen by Yogi.