Uttar Pradesh Key Candidate

The 49-year-old Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the head priest of Gorakhnath Temple Trust won the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat for five consecutive terms – 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Yogi Adityanath holds a Bachelor’s degree in science from HN Bahuguna University in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal. The BJP has been winning the Gorakhpur assembly seat since 1989 (except 2002). In 2002, Adityanath rebelled against the party and fielded Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket, dealing a humiliating defeat for BJP’s Shiv Pratap Shukla. Banking on the Yogi factor, the BJP hopes to consolidate its position in the Gorakhpur division and retain the assembly seats it had won from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2017.