UP: Yogi Adityanath’s Hindu Yuva Vahini goes from fringe to mainstream

Yogi Adityanath's anointment as UP chief minister has made Hindu Yuva Vahini the centre of gravity in the state. The organisation that was discredited as fringe is now the mainstream. Many Hindu Yuva Vahini members are of the belief that with Yogi as the head of the state, the Hindutva agenda will get a boost and the organisation's activities will scale up multifold. To Hindu Yuva Vahini members, various functions of the brigade—formation of cow vigilante groups, anti-Romeo squads, protests against religious conversions—which were earlier perceived as radical, illegal or categorised as moral policing, now appear attuned to the priorities of the new chief minister.