New Delhi: Hours after the BJP clinched a clear victory in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections Thursday — winning 255 of 403 seats — the party’s ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), heaped praise on UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
“The results have given a very clear message, for the next few years there is no competition for the Modi-Yogi duo. And as a chief minister, none can match up to Yogi,” RSS executive committee member Ram Madhav told ThePrint.
He added: “There has to be some reason for which people voted. The Opposition called him names, called the BJP ‘Hindutva party’, because no one can question his integrity as chief minister. He has been impartial and non-discriminatory.”
The UP CM also charted a personal victory in this election — his first assembly polls — winning over 1 lakh votes. He contested from the Gorakhpur (Urban) constituency. He is the first UP CM in 37 years to get a second consecutive term in office, after completing a five-year tenure.
Local RSS functionaries hailed Adityanath, saying his work in the state had ensured the BJP’s sweeping victory in the 2022 UP elections, despite pre-poll concerns about the party’s performance on account of public anger over the now-repealed controversial farm laws, brought in by the Modi government, and a host of other issues.
“Modi ji has contributed to the victory as the supreme leader of the party, as he campaigned across the state. But more than that, it was Yogi ji‘s work on the ground in the past five years that worked (in the party’s favour),” said Subhas ji, prant pracharak (zone head) of Goraksh (Gorakhpur zone), who was in charge of handling 62 seats here.
“We have been on the ground for the past four months, talking to people and analysing the situation. There was no resentment against the chief minister.”
Manifestation of ‘Sangh values’
Explaining how Adityanath was the “prime mover” of the party’s on-ground work, while Modi was the “face of the party”, a senior RSS functionary said, “P.T. Usha ji jab jeet ti hain, tab medal toh gale me pahenate hain, lekin daudte toh unke do paer hain (when sprinter P.T. Usha wins a race, she wears the medal around her neck, but her legs do the running)”.
Others praised him as the “manifestation of the Sangh Parivar’s values” and a “new-age Swami Vivekananda”.
“Yogi is our new-age Swami Vivekananda in his dedication and will to serve the people. He complements Modi. Modi came to power in 2014 and Yogi was made the chief minister in 2017. This Modi-Yogi combination will fulfil the dreams that the Sangh has for the country. They have identified themselves with the rashtra (country),” said a second senior RSS functionary who didn’t want to be identified.
He added: “Yogi is the manifestation of the values imbibed by the Sangh and also of Indian culture and ethos.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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