Hindutva poster boy fails to click

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, December 12

The stature of Hindutva poster boy Yogi Adityanath, the much sought after star campaigner for the saffron party in four of the five states, has taken a drubbing along with the BJP in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Adityanath is reported to have addressed 74 election meetings, the maximum 26 in Rajasthan, followed by 23 in Chhattisgarh, 17 in Madhya Pradesh and eight in Telangana. Collectively, he addressed more meetings than Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP national president Amit Shah.

As a strategy, the BJP was using this rabble-rousing saffron clad Yogi to polarise votes in the three cow-belt states and in Telangana. Yogi is also considered important as he heads the powerful Nath sect of ascetics.

True to his reputation, Yogi did not miss a chance to stoke row. His “Ali versus Bajrangbali”, declaring “Hanuman a Dalit”, renaming “Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar”, “Owaisi will have to leave the country” and others were aimed at strengthening a divisive narrative. However, several of his jibes boomeranged during the campaign itself. Owaisi hit back and wanted to know “who dared to throw him out”, perhaps winning more sympathy than votes for the BJP.

Similarly, Hanuman is a Dalit statement consolidated the aggrieved Dalits. Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad gave a call to Dalits to reclaim Hanuman temples now that Yogi had certified Hanuman to be Dalit. Several Dalit bodies across UP and even in Delhi laid a symbolic claim to several Hanuman temples in Delhi, Agra and Muzaffarnagar.

Last week in Varanasi, supporters of Shivpal Singh Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) laid siege to the district magistrate’s office demanding a caste certificate for Lord Hanuman.

‘PM jumlebaaz vs Brand Yogi’ posters appear 

Lucknow: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most-conclusive defeat, hoardings appeared in Lucknow dismissing him as 'jumlebaaz' and demanding "Yogi lao-desh bachao" (bring Yogi to save the nation). Embarrassed at the hoardings appearing near the CM’s residence as well as the busiest crossing of Hazratganj, officials lodged a police complaint against head of Navnirman Sena Amit Jani, who had put up the posters. The hoarding read "Jumlebaazi ka naam Modi" versus "Hindutva ka brand Yogi".