Yogi Adityanath, whose real name is Ajay Singh Bisht, is a five-time BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He is 44 years old.
A Thakur from Uttarakhand by birth, Adityanath earned a graduate degree in Science from Garhwal University in Srinagar.
His Lok Sabha profile says he is a “religious missionary and social worker.”
Awaidhnath, Mahant of the powerful and wealthy Gorakhnath Temple who had won Gorakhpur thrice consecutively, passed on both his political and religious legacy to Adityanath. Awaidhnath died in 2014.
Adityanath runs the Hindu Yuva Vahini in Purvanchal, an outfit that has been often accused of instigating communal tension.
This Bajrang Dal-style organisation is particularly effective in the east U.P. districts of Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharthnagar. Here, its activists have been accused of converting minor incidents into communal conflagrations.
However during these elections, the Hindu Yuva Vahini broke after some of its members refused to retire some of their candidates. Adityanath expelled some of them.
During the recent elections, the BJP leadership for the first time deployed Adityanath extensively in western U.P. after the first phase.
