GORAKHPUR, India – The powerful chief minister of India’s most populous state woke up in a Hindu temple, fed the cows sweet, thatched cakes, performed a religious ceremony for Lord Shiva, then set out on the last day of his election campaign this month .
This blurring of religion and politics is what some supporters love and some opponents fear most about Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the blazing Hindu monk who won a pivotal state election and a second term in Uttar Pradesh this week.
His electoral victory and continued popularity, despite a heavily criticized government response to the coronavirus pandemic and an increase in hate speech and violence against Muslims under his oversight, have cemented him as one of the most stimulating figures in right-wing Hindu politics, and in increasingly as heir to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the opposition in disarray and with the support of a staunch Hindu base that values his us-or-them calls, Mr Adityanath’s election victory is widely seen as proof that Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party is the electorate keep changing away from the country’s founding secularism.
Despite the country’s growing economic problems and the poor state of public health and schools, Mr Modi, Mr Adityanath and the BJP manage to keep the conversation focused on Hinduism in public affairs, supported by popular social welfare programs and an advanced mobilization of their supporters. And his electoral victory will likely raise the increasingly national profile of Mr. Increase Adityanath further.
Although he came to public attention as the founder of a Hindu youth brigade and was once jailed for hate speech against Muslims, Mr. Adityanath more recently followed the example of Mr. Modi followed suit and moderated his tone somewhat – though without obscuring his Hindu-first message and policies to his right-wing base.
In a TV interview in January, he pronounced the election in terms of “80 versus 20” — a thinly veiled reference to the crude percentage of Hindus in the state compared to Muslims.
On Twitter, he berated his political opponents as “worshippers of Jinnah” – a reference to Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah – to whom predominantly Muslim “Pakistan is dear”. He also posted photos of a visit to New Delhi, ambling along a marble walkway with Mr. Modi hugging him like a beloved protégé.
Since becoming Prime Minister in 2014, Mr Modi has become increasingly passionate and encouraged far-right Hindus. And it is in this climate that Mr. Adityanath, 49, has found the ability to climb quickly. His popularity is due in large part to his ability to speak directly to his fervent base, whether in large public gatherings or through his active Twitter account.
“Whoever tells the truth, people will stand up for him,” said Pinki Patchauri, among a group of women at BJP headquarters in Lucknow on Thursday, cheering on Mr Adityanath. “Yogi and Modi worked for the people,” she said. “That’s why Yogi can be found everywhere.”
Indeed, pictures of Mr Adityanath have been plastered all over Uttar Pradesh, from towering billboards on highways to the sides of tea houses in villages to Gorakhnath Math Temple in Gorakhpur, where his political career took root.
One of the seven children of a forest ranger, Mr Adityanath, born Ajay Singh Bisht, found his calling in college as an activist in the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization.
He became a Hindu priest in 1994 when politics and religion converged across India. The Gorakhnath Temple and other temples adhering to right-wing Hindu nationalism spawned a generation of activists dedicated to the rise of Hindu culture and increasingly focused on demonizing the country’s roughly 200 million Muslims.
Mr Adityanath first won a seat in Parliament in 1998, becoming the youngest member of India’s national body at the time. From Gorakhpur, he founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a hard-liner youth group, which delivered an incendiary speech in 2007 after a Hindu boy was murdered, calling on his followers to kill Muslims. He was briefly imprisoned in Gorakhpur.
Talat Aziz, a former leader of the opposition Samajwadi party, has accused Adityanath of leading an attack on her political rally in 1999, in which her bodyguard was shot dead. A court dismissed the charges against Mr Adityanath in 2019.
“The plant that was planted in 1999 has grown into a huge tree. Now hatred, polarization dominates everything,” said Ms Aziz.
During his first term as prime minister in Uttar Pradesh, anti-terrorism, national security and incitement laws were increasingly used to imprison critics and journalists. And police have cracked down on dissent, shooting nearly two dozen Muslim protesters during a 2019 demonstration against a citizenship law widely considered discriminatory.
Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, a constitutional lawyer and minority rights activist, rose to prominence after leading protests against the citizenship law. Running an unlikely campaign, he challenged Mr Adityanath for the Gorakhpur seat, finishing fourth with less than 8,000 votes.
“He always plays the religion card and that’s why he wins,” Mr. Ravan said. “He makes fun of people, and the country suffers for it.”
But voters’ perceptions that Uttar Pradesh’s streets have become safer, coupled with a slew of social welfare programs and a clear commitment to Hindutva – a devout Hindu culture and way of life – has proved to be a winning combination.
Mr Modi hailed the election victory in Uttar Pradesh as a roadmap for the 2024 general election.
“When we formed the government in 2019, experts said it was because of the 2017 victory” in Uttar Pradesh for his BJP, he said in a speech on Thursday. “I believe the same experts will say that the 2022 election results determined the fate of the 2024 national elections.”
The BJP won four out of five state elections in polls stretching from the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in the north to the coast of Goa on the Arabian Sea.
“The Hindutva appeal that the BJP has created over the past seven years has now really come to stay,” said Arati Jerath, a political analyst.
“The strong Hindu leadership and the soft welfare measures combined very well to give the BJP an edge over the other parties,” she said.
Mr. Adityanath appears to be comfortable as a potential successor to Mr. Modi, who turned 71 in September.
“This is the blessing of 250 million people in Uttar Pradesh,” said Mr. Adityanath during a victory speech at the party’s headquarters in Lucknow, the state capital.
“We accept these blessings, and according to the expectations of ordinary people and with the mantra of together with all, development of all, trust of all and efforts of all, we will continue continuously.”
Back in Gorakhpur on the last night of the campaign, the BJP gave its all for Mr. Adityanath with an extravagant procession, including a brass band, a troupe of male dancers with bells around their waists and ankles, a truckload of cameras and rambunctious supporters mosh down to bass-heavy dance music and snare drums.
From the balcony of a medical practice in downtown Gorakphur, Dr. Sharad Srivastava and his family handfuls of marigold and rose petals on Mr. Adityanath, adorned with a saffron turban over his typical saffron robe. orange BJP truck decorated with flowers.
“We want to restore this kind of nationalism,” said Dr. Srivastava. “We want to reclaim our heritage. Yogiji is not anti-Muslim. He is against those who are anti-national.”
The next morning, dozens of people waited in the Gorakhpur Temple for a word with the ‘maharaj’, which means great king, but also refers to the function of Mr. Adityanath as temple president. They stood as he passed in silence with a large entourage of monks in saffron robes and security forces armed with machine guns.
Karan Deep Singh contributed reporting from Lucknow, India.
