Yogi makes it personal battle, takes charge of Gorakhpur belt

Gorakhpur: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is seeking to ensure that the BJP regains Gorakhpur, which he re presented in Parliament for five consecutive terms, and retains five other seats around it that are also going to the polls in the final phase of the election on May 19.
A shocker of a defeat for the BJP in Gorakhpur last year in the byelection, necessitated by Adityanath vacating the constituency after he became the chief minister, has kept the CM on his toes, although party members say the BJP will bag the seat as well as Kushi Nagar, Bansgaon, Maharajganj, Salempur and Deoria.

It’s a tough challenge as SP and BSP are contesting in an alliance, as they did in the bypoll, and Adityanath knows that any loss would be attributed to him especially in Gorakhpur and around.

Adityanath has been involved at every stage of the campaign, right from candidate selection to management and planning, since the onus is on him to prove that he retains his influence over the region.

“He stays in Gorakhnath temple campus and is micromanaging everything so that 2018 doesn’t get repeated,” said a BJP leader, who did not wish to be identified.

In 2018 bypolls it was said that the BJP candidate Upendra Shukla was not of Adityanath’s choice. But this time it is Adityanath who decided to field Bhojpuri film actor Ravi Kishan and he is in mission mode to make him win. On average he addresses three rallies in the region every day and two out of them takes place in Gorakhpur constituency.

To maximise his public meetings he shuttles in a helicopter. On Tuesday, for instance, he addressed four meetings – in Campierganj, Sahjanwa and two meetings in Gorakhpur city – and appealed to voters to support Kishan.

Adityanth makes it a point to say in his public meetings that it is not Ravi Kishan but he who is contesting the election. “After winning Ravi Kishan will give chance to talented youth artists of the region. It will be a mix of development and ar t,” Adityanath said in Campierganj. Next day, he went to Varanasi and strategised with BJP president Amit Shah in preparation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies scheduled for Friday.

In between he was looking after the preparation of Shah’s roadshow in Gorakhpur on Thursday. Next morning he came directly to address a public meeting in Gulariha in Gorakhpur in support of Kishan.

“You go everywhere and it is the good work of Yogi ji and Modi ji which people talk about. I am his Hanuman who will take his development work further with his blessings,” said Ravi Kishan.