Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday fielded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban seat for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a decision that subdued speculations that he may contest from Ayodhya, as the five-time Lok Sabha MP enters the state poll fray for the first time from his home turf.
Gorakhpur Urban seat will go to vote in the sixth phase on March 3.
Adityanath thanked the Prime Minister for deciding to field him from Gorakhpur Urban seat and said, "With the help of party workers and present and past representatives, the BJP will win not only in Gorakhpur but in the entire state and form its government again with an overwhelming majority.”
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Gorakhpur, BJP's stronghold since 1967
Gorakhpur Urban constituency has been a citadel of the right-wing forces since 1967.
A history of the constituency shows that Congress represented the seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly continuously three times starting from 1952. In 1967 the seat was won by the nominee of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, the earlier incarnation of the BJP and in successive years till 1977, it was with the Jan Sangh.
So, what does this mean?
Yogi Adityanath was a five-time Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur till 2017 before becoming chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The party has played safe and has not exposed the Chief Minister to new turf so he can campaign extensively in the entire state, though there is no clarity whether rival and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will contest or not.
Gorakhpur, in the eastern UP, accounts for 160 assembly seats out of the total 403 seats of the state. In 2017, the saffron party won 115 seats of the 160 and the Samajwadi Party, which currently is a strong opponent of BJP, were the runners up with 17 seats.
There were speculations that Yogi Adityanath would contest from one of the temple towns of Ayodhya or Mathura.
However, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha seat Varanasi being in the eastern UP, BJP is trying to hold the fort in the Eastern UP with two veteran faces as the party experiences a threat from SP.
Elections for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly are scheduled to be held in seven phases starting from February 10.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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