LUCKNOW: After being the surprise choice for the post of UP Chief Minister by the BJP leadership in 2017, Yogi Adityanath has come a long way as he achieved the distinction of being the only CM in the state to have completed six consecutive years in office on Saturday when his government also completed one year of its second term after winning 255 seats in the 2022 assembly polls in March last year.
Yogi, the 21st CM of UP, had made the record being the longest serving CM in Uttar Pradesh on March 1, 2023 by completing five years and 346 days in office. Prior to him, Dr Sampurnanand of the Congress remained UP CM for 5 years and 345 days from 1954 to 1960.
The head priest of Gorakshnath Peeth, one of the most revered shrines of northern India and Nepal, Yogi Adityanath has successfully proved his baiters wrong by establishing himself as the head of government of the most crucial state of the country besides being an administrator with a tight grip on bureaucracy.
It may be recalled that soon after taking over the UP CM in 2017, politicians and political commentators had doubted his capabilities as an administrator with no experience of governance.
“Yogi Adityanath proved his mettle by charting a tough course through the UP bureaucracy. He brought the officers out of their comfort zone and tamed them in his own style of working through late night meetings and departmental presentations in which the presence of senior officials was made mandatory,” says JP Shukla, a prominent political commentator.
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Yogi Adityanath decided to focus his governance on three main pivots -- establishing Hindutva, cracking down on organised crime syndicates and gangsters calling the shots in UP besides trying to catapult the state into a trillion dollar economy by creating an investor-friendly environment and winning the confidence of big corporate houses as was reflected in the recently held Global Investors Summit.
A few of his early moves including putting a ban on cow slaughter and closing down illegal slaughter houses reiterated his Hindutva credentials in 2017. Grand Deepotsav celebrations on Diwali eve in Ayodhya, revelries of ‘Janmashtami’ in Mathura Vrindavan, Kanwar Yatra with all ostentation amid the shower of rose petals, reconstruction of grand Kashi Vishwanath Corridor besides providing a new splendour to Ganga Aarti on the ghats of Varanasi, all had his stamp as the Hindutva poster boy of the BJP.
His frequent visits to Ayodhya to oversee the progress of the upcoming Ram temple along with the latest gesture of organising Ramcharitmanas and Saptashati Paath cemented his image of an apostle of Hindutva further.
Right after assuming power in 2017, Yogi had made it amply clear to the organised crime syndicates and gangsters to mend ways or be ready to leave the world. He gave a free hand to the police authorities who carried out over 10,000 encounters neutralizing around 178 listed gangsters and history sheeters and arresting 23,017 in the state during the last six years. Bulldozer action against land sharks and illegal property dealers earned him the moniker of ‘Bulldozer Baba’ and led many states to follow his footsteps against the wrongdoers.
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Bringing a law against 'love jihad', cracking down on those who vandalised public property during the anti-CAA-NRC protests by putting up their photos and posters on major crossings and recovering the damages established Yogi Adityanath as a tough administrator. He has the credit of keeping the state riot free during the last six years.
Putting the accelerator on various aspects of governance, Yogi is credited with implementing central welfare schemes in a time bound manner which helped the BJP register an emphatic win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections despites a grand SP-BSP-RLD alliance in place.
Another high point of his first tenure was that he broke the ‘jinx of Noida’ by visiting the NCR district umpteen number of times and getting back in the CM saddle in 2022 impressively. Earlier, CMs used to keep away from Noida believing that a visit to the district would lead to their defeat in polls.
The third pivot of the Yogi model of governance was its relentless efforts to make the state a robust one trillion dollar economy. After the conspicuous change in the law and order scenario, the UP government has been able to inculcate a confidence in big corporate houses who were packing their paraphernalia to leave the state prior to 2017. It is well reflected in investment announcements worth Rs 33.5 lakh crore received against a target of Rs 17.5 lakh crore during the Global Investors Summit organised last month.
