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HomeOpinionIndia’s worst CM is working on his image. His opponents will let...

India’s worst CM is working on his image. His opponents will let him succeed

While the opposition is in a funk, Yogi Adityanath is already focusing on improving his image.

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After a post in February 2014, Yogi Adityanath’s blog fell silent. Even after he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, there was no post. Suddenly, after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Yogi Adityanath has started blogging regularly.

His last post was on the International Yoga Day, in Hindi and in Sanskrit. There’s been one on water conservation, one with the text of his speech at the Niti Aayog meeting, and one on the BJP’s excellent performance in the Lok Sabha elections, winning 62 of the 80 seats in UP despite the SP-BSP alliance.

The timeline of Yogi Adityanath’s personal blog tells you how the BJP has been balancing Brand Modi and Brand Yogi in Uttar Pradesh.


Also read: BJP has zero tolerance to crime, no riots since we came to power, says UP CM Adityanath


Since Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister in 2017, he has fared rather poorly. His government has made headlines for all the wrong reasons, from encephalitis deaths to rape charges on party colleagues, stray cattle destroying farmers’ crops across the state and poor law and order despite extra-judicial ‘encounter’ killings by the police.

But Yogi’s image took a beating also because he didn’t claim any credit for any good work. All credit was given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had a Lok Sabha election to win. For example, people reported an improvement in electricity supply and yet complained against Yogi Adityanath. During elections, I met many who were voting for Modi but said Akhilesh was a better CM than Yogi.

So, when reporters travelling in the field found people saying they liked Modi but not Yogi, this was partly a deliberate strategy by the BJP to let Modi take all credit. The BJP-RSS workers, cadres, their WhatsApp networks and media strategies did not even try to counter the beating that Yogi’s image was taking. All narrative strategies were focused on maintaining Brand Modi, turning 2019 polls into a presidential election, and convincing voters to place country over village.

But now that Modi has won, the BJP has immediately started thinking about the UP assembly election in 2022. Hence, you see Yogi Adityanath suddenly re-discovering his blog.


Also read: Elevating Yogi Adityanath is becoming PM Modi’s biggest blunder now, not demonetisation


Opposition leaders will wonder how blogging brings votes. The opposition still does politics the way it was done in the pre-Modi era. Yogi’s blogs get reported by the media and the attempt is to set the agenda and make sure people understand that Yogi is setting the agenda. The opposition isn’t even licking its wounds yet, it’s simply in a funk.

The Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh think that the Lok Sabha elections will not have any bearing on 2022. After all, voters differentiate between central and state leaders. And the state government is highly unpopular thanks to the stray cattle menace, unhappiness among lower OBCs with a government perceived to be dominated by Thakurs, and so on.

But 2022 is three years away. That’s enough time to build thousands of gaushalas, manage the competing caste interests in a better way, and carry out development work in the name of Yogi rather than Modi. This won’t happen overnight, but it has begun.

This is in keeping with the ideas of permanent and positive campaigning that Modi indulges in. Opposition parties, on the other hand, still think politics is done through press conferences and elections are won by just a few big rallies.

Yogi Adityanath is already projecting himself as an able, decisive administrator. As the first step, the bureaucracy is being blamed for everything that’s going wrong. Yogi is already travelling across the state to carry out surprise checks on officials. Newspaper headlines scream: ‘Yogi warns officials, go to the field or take voluntary retirement’. Another one: ‘Action will be taken against officials who sit on a file for more than three days’. Similar statements have been made about the police too.

Apart from creating the image of a tough top boss, this attack on the bureaucracy is designed to shift the blame from Yogi.


Also read: How Nehru and Yogi Adityanath differed on naming cities — from Chandigarh to Prayagraj


The BJP has a massive machinery of party cadre, social media and a pliant mainstream media that will make sure, very soon, the public narrative shifts from ‘Yogi is doing nothing’ to ‘Yogi is trying but bureaucracy isn’t working’.

Thereon, the effort will be to showcase development work. There will be new expressways. There will be a big international airport near Noida. There will be a big push for accessible drinking water, making pipelines reach every home. In a year or two, people will start saying Yogi is doing a good job. The man who sounds like the worst chief minister in India today might start looking like one of the best. A lazy, divided and archaic opposition will make sure Yogi succeeds in winning the narrative war, coming across as the best person to lead UP once again in 2022.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. Hey I am from Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 2022 yogi will win …..liberal 🤣🤣 and one thing more # the print 🤡 , stop propaganda 😠

  2. Biased article by Shivam Vij who has never written well about BJP, in any article. Yogi performing quite well in the pandemic. Can he do better? Ofcourse. But frankly he’s far better than most CMs

  3. Seriously??? Gross!! Im from UP and would humbly invite you to visit few cities before become the cardinal jury. To say he is bad, you must be very sure that previous govt was good. Again, Seriously? Trust me mate, no one can stop him from coming back again. Please see the work thats been done. Cant tell you of villages but none, almost none, are gaddha vali road now. All the xings now are unrecognizable. After all what has happened in last few years, it feels earlier we were living in villages. It’s Irony, that person far off places who has no idea of what its like now in Up is writing shit.

  4. When was this author appointed as principal judge of chief ministers .Why don’t u add this on to your fake resume.
    Has no credibility in analytical abilities in politics.Just a partisan shrill given space to vent venom by the likes of
    Ram (card carrying communist) as well print. Looking forward to more of meaningless diatribe. More of a comic relief.
    Circus isn’t complete without jokers like this one😀😀

  5. A CM who is seen to be doing something is better than the lazy, anarchic opposition. They will not become overnight bright and active, even if they had come to power. The intent to do good and trying is better than corrupt and lazy.

  6. I live in U.P., and I have not seen any sign of progress or improvement on any front. In fact the electricity supply situation has worsened, as have civic amenities.Ironically Akhilesh did a lot of good work, especially after he was able to shake off his uncles etc, but he was not rewarded for it. More and more one is inclined to believe that blind emotions carry more weight than rational acts.

  7. Worst CM in India ?
    On what basis ? Which parameters, what formula you have used to reach this conclusion ?

    You started with a bias, didn’t even try to justify it till the end. Let me guess, you hate him, right ? I don’t like him either, but he is far from being worst based on any governance related criteria.

    Wake up brother, you were completely wrong in analyzing 2019. It’s not even a month and you are back to giving narcissistic opinions.

  8. Shri Vij, do you think that the people of Uttar Pradesh are stupid? People across caste lines, even across the religious lines have overwhelmingly voted for the BJP. Go and see on why they did so, instead of siting in your Air Conditioned office and letting your imagination run wild!!

  9. This article shows the reality of uttar pradesh’s government and yes due cattles and fake encounter he is worst cm of up

  10. This guy was telling us few months back that Modi is not winning. MGB in UP will prove to be his bane. Now he is blabbering about Yogi without actually having any clue whats happening on the ground. And if Yogi does even half of what he is saying at the end of his article, then Yogi will come back with even bigger mandate. Mr Vij is clueless himself but doubts the intelligence of voters

  11. How do you call him worst CM? He has done immense work and is very popular!
    More than we can say for your paymasters who neither work nor are that popular!

    Stop this propaganda!

  12. The article proves that the disconnect between press and people is continuing despite the debacle during the 2019 polls..

  13. The author who is a well known pseudo liberal completely ignores the fact that the encounters have helped eliminate the goonda culture in the state to a large extent. From the cops touching the feet of SP politicians and chasing Azam Khan’s buffaloes they have now grown to giving rowdies a hard time. Again in the case of Encephalitis the author again conveniently ignores the fact that under Yogi the state has now achieved 100% immunization and is battling the disease much better than it did previously. The author also writes as if expressways have not been built so far under Yogi. A very politically biased hackjob of an article. Shame!

  14. Designating Yogi as the worst PM? You got to be kidding me. Sure his image is communal but he is far better than the fox masquerading as sheep.

    The law and order situation is far better in UP today compared to under Mayawati and Akhilesh. The rampant corruption and babudom have massively come down. Houses have been built for people, cylinders provided & healthcare has vastly improved in the state.

    Women can move around much more safely today in UP as goons are fearful of being encountered. There has been an unprecendented amount of roads and highways built in UP.

    And this has been done in a time frame of just 2 years. On the other hand, you had Mayawati and Akhilesh, the former who built statues and the latter who used public money as his personal fiefdom.

    And you still label Yogi as the worst CM? Yes UP is still way behind a lot of Indian states and will take another decade or two to showcase sizable human development. But Yogi today is UPs best choice.

  15. Even so!! what is the problem with this pork presstitutes Oinking is all about?? Why the hadith explanation of who is the worst CM in India & on what basis??

  16. Pretty Biased one sided Article, without any Evidence, on how and where Yogi Adityanath Failed in his Governance.
    High time Media to be more objective in their articles.

  17. By giving regular space to this author, ThePrint is ensuring that the vision it has set for itself remains elusive. ThePrint can’t gain credibility through one eyed journalism.

  18. The article is totally biased sans any merit, if Yogi’s image was bad ,he would not have delivered 64 seats. Lets not think common people are fools, they know better who is good to them. I would suggest such baseless allegations must be kept aside and meaningful including critical articles with at least collaborative proof needs to be placed

  19. To a lay observer, it seems that Behenji was hasty in pulling the plug on the alliance. The force of the victory, starting with Uttar Pradesh, has taken most people by surprise. Against such a sweep, difficult to see how either the BSP or the SP, fighting alone, would have won more seats. BMW herself may have ended up with five. Interoperability had been established in three important bypolls. For what it may have been worth, but for Ms Mayawati’s obduracy, the Congress too could have been part of the alliance. They may still have lost, but would have come across as a credible force. 2. Selling the monk as a Ferrari will test the marketing skills of Prasoon Joshi. Persuading 200 million Uttar Pradeshis that Yogiji will lead them into the First World looks tough. They have voted out incumbents in 2007, 2012 and 2017, quite decisively.

  20. And he will succeed too…. What is all required to achieve power through politics in India is …. fooling the voters. Though it requires lot of effort and sharp witty mind, at the end it is all about fooling the public. Otherwise I never imagined gangster like Yogi can become CM of India’s largest populated state.

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