BJP and its ally IPFT won eight of the nine seats in Tripura where Yogi had campaigned; UP CM is said to have close link with the Mangaluru-based Jogi Math.
New Delhi: Impressed by his performance in Tripura, the BJP is set to use Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as one of its lead campaigners in Karnataka next.
The BJP and its ally IPFT won eight of the nine seats where Adityanath had campaigned in Tripura.
“In Tripura, there are 35 per cent voters belonging to the Nath community, the UP CM’s sect. Our assessment about his impact has proved beneficial,” said a senior BJP leader.
Now, the BJP plans to replicate the Tripura experiment in the southern state, which goes to the polls in April-May.
Adityanath is said to have a close link with the Mangaluru-based Jogi Math as he is the president of the organisation that elects the ‘Mathadheesh’ (head of this math) every 12 years. Adityanath attended the anointment ceremony in 2016.
Sources said that the UP CM also shares a good rapport with Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahasamsthana Math in Karnataka’s Mandya district. “Yogi will work among both Lingayats and Vokkaligas,” added a senior state leader, referring to the two dominant communities of Karnataka.
BJP insiders claim that both Lingayats and Vokkaligas practise the same customs and rituals as the Nath community does. “By this logic, they are dharma brothers of the Nath sect to which Yogi belongs. This is no less a connection,” the party leader said.
In one of his public rallies in Karnataka in January, Adityanath had said that the state has a link with the Gorakhnath sect whose founder had come to the southern state to propagate its beliefs.
Adityanath is due to address a meeting in Surathkal near Mangaluru on 19 March, to protest against the killings of RSS members in the state.
Keeping Adityanath’s relevance as a campaigner in mind, the Karnataka BJP unit has chalked out a detailed route for his public meetings and yatras.
The BJP created history in Tripura by ending the 25-year rule of the CPI(M).