Yogi Adityanath, born in 1972 as Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht, is a monk-turned-politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party or the BJP. He has been the longest-serving Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, having been in office for over nearly seven years — since March 2017.
Head priest at the Gorakhnath temple, he first joined politics when he was named in charge of managing the election campaign for former MP Mahant Avaidyanath.
Yogi Adityanath represents the Gorakhpur urban constituency in the state legislative assembly. First elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, he has served as the MP for Gorakhpur in the parliament. He was a member of the Legislative Council of the state between 2017 and 2022.
Law and order was low hanging fruit for the new state government – whose head was nominated, not elected – to assert its authority and credentials of good governance. The deaths of infants and children in the Gorakhpur government hospital – for want of oxygen cylinders, since the supplier had not been paid for months – and the hounding of the conscientious Dr Kafeel were early indications that the new administration was not measuring up. The case of MLA Sengar, continuing crimes against women, now this spate of wrongful acts against journalists, UP continues to disappoint.