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UP election result: Modi-Yogi factor propels BJP to historic victory
UP election result: As the results streamed in on Thursday, it was evident that Adityanath’s graph within the BJP was set to zoom as he became the first chief minister in UP to complete a full term and return with a majority of his own.
On the eve of counting for the most important election of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s political life, the 49-year-old leader appeared calm. “Kya hua, darr toh nahi lag raha hai (What happened, I hope are you not experiencing fear),” he asked some children while taking them on a joyride in his helicopter before setting off for Lucknow from Gorakhpur on Wednesday.
This banter sat starkly in contrast to his image of a Hindu strongman and the campaign pitches in which Adityanath had repeatedly hit out at opponents with sharp, no holds-barred attacks.
As the results streamed in on Thursday, it was evident that Adityanath’s graph within the BJP was set to zoom as he became the first chief minister in UP to complete a full term and return with a majority of his own. Leaders have already started speaking of the emergence of a new phenomenon in the state’s politics: M-Y factor, not the Muslim Yadav combine of the Samajwadi Party, but the Modi-Yogi factor that propelled the BJP to a historic victory.
The campaign started with viral images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking around the UP Raj Bhavan, with a hand on the shoulders of Adityanath. This was understood as the party leadership’s backing of the chief minister.
Modi addressed 27 rallies, including four virtual ones. Adityanath addressed 200.
In one of his rallies in Shahjahanpur in December, Modi combined UP and Yogi, to coin “UPYOGI (useful)” term for the chief minister and backed the UP government’s demolition drive. Modi also kept backing Adityanath throughout the campaign with coinage like “aayenge to Yogi hi (Yogi will retain power)”. Union home minister Amit Shah also hailed Adityanath’s government in his rallies.
The campaign was fought on the back of Adityanath’s government’s record on law and order – exemplified by the repeated invocation of bulldozers, symbolic of Adityanath’s drive against the mafia.
In Gorakhpur, BJP’s Lok Sabha MP Ravi Kishan said bulldozers were set to resume work even as Adityanath’s media advisor Mrityunjay Kumar shared a song sung by Chanchal Banjara titled, “Baba bulldozerwala” that the BJP used in the campaign.
“Opponents hurled bulldozer baba as a jibe but Yogi ji is spotless. He wore it as a badge of honour like a true karmayogi who believes in selfless action for the betterment of the society. The bulldozer symbolizes demolishing negativity to pave the way for growth and hope,” Mrityunjay said.
To distinguish his appeal from the caste-driven coalitions of his rivals, Adityanath and his strategists zeroed in on law and order. In each of his rallies,
bulldozers were parked in the front . Even as other poll narratives waxed and waned, the “bulldozer” moved uniformly from west to east.
The BJP complemented this with welfarism. In December, Adityanath laid the foundation stones of 75 houses for the poor to be constructed under the PM Awas Yojana – the free housing scheme for the poor — on land freed from possession of mafia-politician Atiq Ahmad in Prayagraj and stated that elsewhere too, such land would be used for welfare initiatives for the poor.
A third ingredient was religious polarisation. In each of his rallies, the CM talked faith. He referred to his government’s initiatives in Ayodhya, Mathura, Vindhyachal, Varanasi and Chitrakoot to name a few. He also cleverly set the narrative early on by describing the election as a “80 vs 20” affair – a point he made towards the end of the campaign, too. There are about 20% Muslims in Uttar Pradesh but the CM clarified later that the remarks weren’t in a religious or caste context.
“It means that 80% people back our development vision while 20% will keep criticising us, regardless of our work,” he had said. The other narrative he weaved into the campaign was to credit the Samajwadi Party with constructing ‘kabristan ki diwar (graveyard boundary).” “I think it’s wrong to say that SP didn’t do anything during their term. They did construct ‘kabristan ki diwar’,” he kept reiterating, to run down Akhilesh Yadav’s bid to stage an upset win.
Crucially, him and Modi constantly talked ‘food’ – the free ration to an estimated 150 million people. In their rallies, the BJP leaders cleverly segregated the breakup of free ration beneficiaries – 90 million Other Backward Classes, 30 million Dalits and another 30 million from the general category.
This free ration was a key part of “labarthi (beneficiary)” initiative that Adityanath built on. On the issue of Covid vaccination too, he repeatedly reminded the people how Samajwadi Party leaders tried to mislead them by describing it as ‘Modi vaccine’. “They tried to mislead you but took the Covid shot on the sly. Teach them a lesson,” he said.
What it did was help the BJP tide over considerable anti-incumbency created by unemployment, perception of caste bias and the handling of the second wave of the pandemic, especially the sight of bodies being dumped by the Ganga. Remember that even as late as the summer of 2021, the party was struggling to win local body polls with embarrassing reverses in Modi and Adityanath’s home districts.
And yet, when the results were announced on Thursday, it was Adityanath– the hardline Hindu leader who began his life in politics as a monk and continues to be the head of the Gorakhnath math – who had triumphed over the odds. A larger role in national politics, and a stronger grip on India’s most-populous state, await him.
