UTTAR PRADESH: The week-long suspense on who will lead India’s largest state is over as newly-elected 312 BJP MLAs in Uttar Pradesh elected Gorakhpur Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath as the next Chief Minister.
Adityanath’s name was proposed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suresh Khanna and was supported by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Yogi Adityanath to take oath as UP CM in Lucknow at 5 pm on Sunday, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma deputy CMs of the state.
Known for his firebrand Hindutva image, the 44-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader comes from the Rajput community and is the head of the Gorakhnath Mutt in Gorakhpur, which has millions of followers from eastern UP and neighbouring Nepal.
A science graduate from HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, Adityanath is popular for his inflammatory speeches among his supporters but has antagonised minorities by his speeches and statements like Love Jihad, Ghar Wapasi.
Adityanath is the founder of “youth wing” called Hindu Yuva Vahini, a socio-cultural outfit accused of inflaming communal passions.
A five-time MP from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency, Adityanath has several criminal cases pending against him related to rioting, attempt to murder, Trespassing on burial place, criminal intimidation and more under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
#WATCH Yogi Adityanath chosen as Uttar Pradesh BJP legislature party leader pic.twitter.com/OPnuON4BTg
— ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2017