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(Yogi Adityanath has been named as the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. In the light of this announcement, The Quint is republishing this article from its archives, originally published on 4 March 2017 as a part of The Quint's Uttar Pradesh Assembly election reportage.)
There is a flutter followed by a hushed silence among the assembled throng of men and women as the ochre-clothed, shaven headed man with a perpetual frown and curled lips hurried out of a room and sinks into a cane chair in the shadow of the temple built in honour of his preceptor Mahant Avaidyanath.
One by one, they shuffled up to Adityanath – who had already turned impatient before the first few pages – with pleas begging his assistance in admission to schools, resumption of food grain rations and sundry other appeals.
“Jayyiye aap. Thik se likhwa ke layyiye,” he barked at one appellant stunned by the verbal volley. To another he retorted angrily, “Nahin hoga”, as he dismissed him with the wave of his hand. He passed on the sheets of a lucky few to a sidekick, also draped in saffron kurta and dhoti.
An assistant rushed towards us and sought our business cards. Less than 10 minutes later, when the gathering broke up, Adityanath walked briskly to the doors to the room, sized us up, the curl on his lips betrayed the contempt that he held us in, before brusquely saying, “nikliye yahan se”.
Adityanath hasn’t stepped out of the precincts of the sprawling Gorakhnath mutt today for campaigning across the eastern districts of UP, which go to polls on 4 March and 7 March.
When he emerged from the private meeting room, after a brief tete-a-tete with a youngish associate, whom we had earlier found to be afflicted with a behavioural deficiency similar, if not identical, to his saffron-clad master, we had another brief encounter.
And off he trooped along with a motley bunch of flunkeys and gun-toting bodyguards to attend to a large chunk of bricks-and-plaster that had broken at the edge of a flag stand next to a pond.
“Maharaj baukhlaye huye hain. Position kuchh thik nahin hai,” said Suresh Singh, a plain-clothed guard lounging over tea and khaini with locals in a sweetmeat store outside the main entrance to the mutt.
“Adityanath is coarse. His guru, Avaidyanath was jocular and often greeted us with ‘kaa ji, kaa haal-chaal ba,’ ” recalls Jagdish Prasad, the owner of a tea stall close to the mutt which has, over the years, become cash-rich.
Adityanath certainly has reasons to be edgy and uneasy, though Gorakhpuris are familiar with his churlish nature. The Hindu Yuva Vahini that Adityanath founded in April 2002, split recently over participation in the Assembly polls when a group led by Sunil Singh sought to contest the election.
Adityanath, who was the sole arbiter for ticket distribution for the BJP in UP’s Purvanchal, was against this move.
Besides its spiritual dominance, the Gorakhnath mutt is a money-spinner and the people of this town hold it in deep reverence. The flow of the devout is perennial, though it peaks on Makar Sankranti when the “khichdi ka mela” gets underway.
“Gorakhpur ko Hindutva ka laboratory mana jata hai. Lekin Adityanath ji ne ticket becha hai, Hindu sanskriti ko asamman kiya hai,” said Sunil Singh, who leads the breakaway, fringe faction of the Hindu Yuva Vahini which is contesting 13 seats in eastern UP.
A voluble Sunil Singh, who along with other HYV cadres led riotous mobs to attack Muslims in Mau in 2007, proudly introduces a party colleague as a “killer of Muslims” before directing his ire against Adityanath for giving tickets to men associated with “katta (country-made revolvers), bhatta (brick kilns) and dupatta”.
Back at the mutt, even as the sun is overhead, the flow of devotees – several are women in loud-coloured synthetic sarees, their bangles and payals jingling – has turned into a steady stream, each holding small cardboard boxes containing offerings.
One woman is visibly dejected as Adityanath has turned her away from entertaining her plea to recommend her son’s admission to the local Kendriya Vidyalaya.
But she has unbound faith in Adityanath who she will approach yet again next year.
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