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Yogi Adityanath elected leader of BJP’s legislative party
Yogi Adityanath was unanimously elected the legislative party leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, a day before his formal swearing-in as the 33rd chief minister of the state after retaining power in the recently held assembly elections.
Yogi Adityanath was unanimously elected the legislative party leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, a day before his formal swearing-in as the 33rd chief minister of the state after retaining power in the recently held assembly elections.
Later in the day, Adityanath staked claim to form the government during his meeting with governor Anandiben Patel, who invited him to take oath as the next chief minister of the state. However, till late on Thursday, suspense remained over the names for the post of deputy chief minister, and the Speaker in the 18th UP assembly.
The legislative party meeting took place in the presence of the BJP’s central observers, Union home minister Amit Shah and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das.
All the 255 elected lawmakers of the BJP as well as the 18 MLAs who won on the symbols of the BJP’s pre-poll allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad party backed Adityanath’s name, which was proposed by senior most leader of the BJP legislative party Suresh Khanna.
In his speech after Adityanath was named the leader, Shah described Yogi as a leader with “vyapak drishtikon (impressive vision)”. He credited Adityanath with implementing the pro-poor policies and programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Adityanath will take oath of office and secrecy at a big ceremony that will be attended by several chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP as well as those of its allies. Several top industrialists, film actors, beneficiaries of various government schemes and seers are likely to be present for the swearing-in of the first government to be voted back to power for a consecutive term in 37 years.
Soon after being elected the BJP legislative party leader, Adityanath praised the Prime Minister and Shah for their guidance and leadership which, he said, was responsible for the party’s spectacular return to power in the most populous state. He also said that in 2017, when voted to power, the party’s government had the task of steering the state from “kushashan” (bad governance) to “sushasan (good governance)”.
“Now, we will have to compete with ourselves to set newer benchmarks in improving the good governance model even further,” Adityanath said. He recalled how when he was picked as the chief minister in 2017, he had no prior experience of governance.
“In 2017, when the party reposed its trust in me for being the chief minister, I was not even an MLA then, just an ordinary MP. I had no administrative experience. I had not been a part of any government set-up till then. But the Prime Minister and the home minister guided me like guardians and because of them we managed to ensure implementation of reforms, investment and good governance,” Adityanath said.
The UP election 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.
Speaking after the meeting, Shah said: “Yogiji was formally elected as the legislative party leader today, but if you recall, we had way back announced that Yogiji will be the party’s CM candidate.” He advised the party MLAs to remember that the party was supreme and that the next five years of the BJP government would be devoted to restoring UP’s “lost glory” and to making it the country’s “number one economy”.
When he takes oath on Friday, Adityanath will become the first chief minister in UP to assume office for a second term after serving a full five-year tenure.
Adityanath, then a five-term MP from Gorakhpur, had become a member of the upper house of the state legislature (MLC), the Vidhan Parishad on September 8, 2017, in keeping with the constitutional norms that mandate that a chief minister or minister have to be members of either house of the state legislature. Adityanath has already resigned as an MLC as he has been elected MLA from Gorakhpur (Urban) assembly constituency by over 100,000 votes.
