New Delhi: The assembly byelection results in Uttar Pradesh have provided a renewed boost to ‘Brand Yogi’, which was being questioned after the subpar performance of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has won six of the nine seats, where bypolls took place, with ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) claiming victory in one. Rival Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged only two.
The BJP not only managed to retain four seats—Ghaziabad, Khair, Majhawan and Phulpur—but also snatched SP strongholds Kundarki and Katehari.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was leading the party’s campaign for the bypolls from the front and acted as the “commander-in-chief” in terms of devising the party’s strategy for these elections, dedicating his time to put BJP’s house in order after the Lok Sabha setback.
He looked closely at the issues of the party MLAs and ordered the government officials to cooperate with them. A team of ‘Super 30’ ministers were allotted duties across all constituencies headed for bypolls.
Between 5 and 18 November, CM Yogi addressed as many as 37 public meetings not just in Uttar Pradesh, but also Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In Uttar Pradesh alone, Adityanath addressed 13 rallies and held two roadshows.
On Saturday, Yogi took to X to write: ”The victory of BJP-NDA in the byelections is a testament to the unwavering faith of the people on the successful leadership and guidance of respected Prime Minister Shri Narendramodi Ji. This victory is the result of the security, good governance and public welfare policies of the double engine government and the hard work of dedicated workers.”
उत्तर प्रदेश के विधानसभा उपचुनावों में भाजपा-एनडीए की विजय आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के यशस्वी नेतृत्व एवं मार्गदर्शन पर जनता-जनार्दन के अटूट विश्वास की मुहर है।
ये जीत डबल इंजन सरकार की सुरक्षा-सुशासन एवं जन-कल्याणकारी नीतियों तथा समर्पित कार्यकर्ताओं के अथक…
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) November 23, 2024
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‘Free hand to Yogi’
According to a senior BJP functionary in Uttar Pradesh, the dark clouds shrouding the chief minister’s credibility as a leader have dispersed. Now, a free hand by the party high command to Yogi has been extended to him till 2027 as he has passed the bypoll litmus test, the functionary told ThePrint. “Now, he will run the show freely. There will be no hindrance from at least the insiders now.”
Another functionary claimed that the victory has given a big boost to the chief minister’s image. “His slogan—’Batenge toh katenge (If we’re divided, we’ll be slaughtered)’—has set the Hindutva narrative in these bypolls. He has not only led the campaign in his way, but also been involved in the micro-management of every seat. The Opposition’s narrative of PDA (Pichde or backward classes, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak or minorities) and ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ (save the Constitution) in UP is finished now and the credit goes to ‘Maharaj ji’,” the functionary said.
According to S.K. Dwivedi, UP-based political analyst and retired professor from the University of Lucknow, Yogi has proved that he is BJP’s “supreme leader” in the state.
“His aggressive campaign and monitoring of the bypolls made it easy for BJP. Though the caste equations on many seats were not in favour of the party, it still managed to win. This will give a boost to Yogi’s image and also re-establish him as an undisputed leader of the northern belt,” Dwivedi told ThePrint.
In this year’s Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s tally in the state had shrunk from 62 to 33, bringing the chief minister’s leadership into question by many. The setback had led to a crisis within the party and a disconnect between the BJP cadre and the government, which was raised by the Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya during an executive meeting in July this year. The blame game between both sides—Yogi and Keshav—had forced the party high command to interfere.
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