Who is UP's CM-designate Yogi Adityanath? The journey of Monk-turned-politician

Lucknow, Mar 25: Yogi Adityanath will take oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second term on Friday. The event will have the participation of political heavy-weights from the BJP along with industralists and religious leaders.

Before he was picked for the top position in 2017 by the BJP, Yogi had hit the headlines for his hate speeches and the saffron party was divided over his candidature. It was through the RSS backing that he was made the Chief Minister of India's most populous state.

Five years later, Yogi has managed to emerge as a strong leader in the BJP and his programs in the previous tenure has given confidence to the people and the party on his administrative skills.

Who is Yogi Adityanath? The Journey of the Monk Turned Politician

Born Ajay Singh Bisht in Pauri Garhwal's Panchur (now Uttarakhand), on June 5, 1972, Adityanath left home in 1990 to join the campaign to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur.

After Avaidyanath's death in 2014, he took over as the head of the Gorakhnath math', a post he still holds and makes frequent trip to the eastern UP town. He was not averse to taking on the BJP then, and founded his own band of volunteers called the Hindu Yuva Vahini.

Adityanath went to school in his native village and later completed his bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.

Yogi Became Youngest MP and CM

He had entered politics on the directions of his guru in 1998 and at 28 became the youngest Lok Sabha member, winning from Gorakhpur. He went on the represent the parliamentary seat four more times till he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on March 19, 2017.

As CM, he took decisions that confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. Early in his term, he banned illegal slaughterhouses and the police cracked down on cow slaughter.

His government brought an ordinance and later a bill against religious conversion through force or deceit, a move that also seemed to target interfaith marriages.Other BJP-ruled states followed the UP example, coming up with their versions of the law.

Briefly, last year, there was speculation that the BJP wanted to replace Adityanath as chief minister. But the rumours died down with top leaders saying that he needed to be back as CM in 2022 if the party sought to return to power at the Centre in 2024. Party leaders hailed the Adityanath-Narendra Modi double-engine' government in the state.

The BJP's 2022 assembly election win may have further consolidated his stock in the party. The saffron party is now set to win the UP state polls twice in a row, a feat achieved by no other party in three decades.

Adityanath has been blamed by some and hailed by others for adopting strong-arm tactics to fight crime. Bulldozers , used to raze illegal buildings, have figured repeatedly in campaign speeches. Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were crushed ruthlessly, and protesters asked to pay for damage to government property.

Opposition parties slammed his government over its handling of law and order, alleging that it followed a "thoko niti", or a fake encounter policy. Officials deny the allegation.

During this campaign, he has also been accused of polarisation of the state's two major communities.

His has talked about an 80-20 split of votes, which many thought referred to the Hindu-Muslim ratio. He has claimed that people who say abba jaan benefitted during the Samajwadi Party's term in office, when there were power cuts on Diwali but uninterrupted electricity supply during Eid.