How Brand Yogi can complement Brand Modi and become the future of Indian politics

In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a historic victory in four of the five states that went into polls. It retained power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, while Punjab went to the Aam Aadmi Party. However, the real jewel in its crown was Uttar Pradesh; the emphatic victory of the BJP under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is of far-reaching significance and has set new political paradigms.

With the state contributing 80 seats to the Lok Sabha, it is not said without reason that the gateway to form the government at the Centre passes through Uttar Pradesh. The 2022 results have not only paved the way for the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections; rather, these results have now put Yogi squarely on the national stage and among the frontline BJP leaders.

His resounding victory comes despite the internal party survey conducted in June-July last year, immediately after the second wave of COVID-19, suggesting that the BJP might not be in a comfortable position to form the next government in Uttar Pradesh. Under the guise of this survey, a lobby within the party, insecure and apprehensive of Yogi’s growing stature, wanted to sack him. A section of the media too played along. Despite surveys turning him down and saboteurs acting against him within his own party, Yogi demonstrated tremendous grit and determination. He not only assured, rather promised the top leadership of the Sangh and BJP a victory in the upcoming election, purely on the merit of his work. Ultimately, his faith and unflinching work in the last five years won him the mandate in March.

Anti-incumbency is an essential feature of Indian democracy. Dissatisfaction or resentment with a leader or a party that is in power is quite natural. It is impossible to satisfy everyone. But then, in recent years, Narendra Modi effectively circumvented this in Gujarat, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh. On the contrary, they registered successive electoral victories by introducing a completely new phenomenon of pro-incumbency. This was an unprecedented achievement in Indian politics.

After almost four decades, an incumbent party held onto power in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, not a single Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who completed their full term was ever re-elected for a consecutive term. Yogi’s re-election for the consecutive term is a first of its kind and a record in the making. Apart from this, Yogi has put the ‘Noida jinx’ theory to rest. Since 1989, there was a perception in the politics of UP that any chief minister who would visit the city would not return to power in the state.

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This historic victory of Yogi defying anti-incumbency, resentment and opposition arising out of the farmers’ movement, so-called mismanagement of the pandemic, internal factionalism, exodus of backward caste leaders like Omprakash Rajbhar, Swamiprasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini, alleged marginalisation of Brahmins, and above all media outrage and hostility is of greater political significance. Further, it has demonstrated that his trajectory is neither a flash in the pan, nor a product of circumstances; rather, Yogi is here to stay.

The voter of Uttar Pradesh has been tired of casteist and dynastic politics. Corruption and crime have been the inevitable outcome of this politics. Appeasement of people of a particular religion under the cover of secularism is a universal element of Indian politics. UP is no exception to it. Seeking everyone’s vote, while giving power to the people of a particular caste and religion has been an essential element of Indian politics for ages.

Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yogi worked on the policy of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Sabka Vishwas”. He runs UP with an iron hand, cracking down on big mafia gangs that earlier operated with impunity. This even earned him the moniker of “Bulldozer Baba”. Years later, the restoration of law and order in the state and the fear of government rule arose among the criminals. Similarly, the on-ground implementation of the Central government schemes gave unprecedented popularity to Yogi. Also, the dedicated BJP workers of the booth level played a decisive role in galvanising the support of the masses.

To achieve this level of dominance in Uttar Pradesh, both at a political and administrative level, was a mammoth task. The credibility of Yogi’s model — a crime-free, business-friendly, infrastructurally developed and civilisationally conscious Uttar Pradesh — is the biggest turnaround story of Indian politics. Now Indian politics is becoming welfare-driven, leaving behind decades-old issues like Mandal and Kamandal.

With Adityanath joining the trinity in the BJP, alongside Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah, Brand Yogi will complement Brand Modi in the coming years. Yogi should ascertain the very fine line between welfare policies and freebies politics. The politics of ‘freebies’ of the Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu and the Aam Aadmi Party of Delhi is not healthy. This politics has ruined Sri Lanka. The Yogi government should see to it that their welfare policies do not become a replica of the politics of freebies.

The people of this country, especially Uttar Pradesh, have high hopes for Yogi, and he has to repay this debt by fulfilling those aspirations in the next five years.

The author is Dean, Students’ Welfare, Central University of Jammu. Views expressed are personal.

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