'Sanatan Dharma is the religion of humanity, and any attack on it will put entire humanity in danger'
Ram Vilas Vedanti said Advani tried to persuade the karsevaks to come down from atop of the structure.
Adityanath visited his village for the first time in several years to attend any family function there.
'For the BJP to lose this virtual pocket borough of the saffron brotherhood demonstrates how resolutely the people of Gorakhpur have turned against the party,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The BJP's 2022 assembly election win may have further consolidated Adityanath's stock within the BJP. The saffron party is now set to win the UP state polls twice in a row, a feat achieved by no other party in three decades.
'He was a nobody then.' 'And whatever little his contribution was there, it was restricted to Gujarat.'
When the temple issue predominated BJP's discourse, its victory margins have been narrow.
Within four years of winning a single party majority in the Lok Sabha with 282 seats -- the first time it has happened in 30 years -- the BJP has lost it.
On October 5, 2019, the sessions court hearing the matter had said that as per Supreme Court orders, all evidence has to be presented before December 24, 2019, which would be the last working day.
As CM, he took decisions that confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. Early in the first term, he banned illegal slaughterhouses and the state police cracked down on cow slaughter. But the menace of stray cattle created disquiet among farmers, presenting the Adityanath government with a new challenge.
Yogi Adityanath, who has been declared BJP candidate from Gorakhpur will be the second leader to contest from the district as a chief minister after Tribhuvan Narayan Singh, who lost in 1971.
For firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adityanath, Hindutva and development complement each other and the sitting MP from Gorakhpur is harping on this ideology of political Hinduism, which he says is a "symbol of our nationalism", as he eyes a fifth straight term.
The massive crowds of devotees in temples, elaborately decorated tableaus and Dahi Handi revelry were all missing this year on Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna, as celebrations were dampened by COVID-19 restrictions.
If Modi and Shah did not project Adityanath as CM, it was out of expediency, says Radhika Ramaseshan.
Khushi Dubey, Hari Shankar Tiwari and Mata Prasad Pandey represent the resentment among Brahmins towards the Adityanath government. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Although conventional political wisdom would decree that the construction of a 'magnificent' Ram temple at his 'birth-place' would bring the BJP a big yield of votes in the prospective elections, its leaders know by now that the mandir must not exist in isolation in its game plan, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'This is an emotional issue and cannot be resolved by law alone.' 'This can be resolved only by creating trust again.' 'So much bloodletting has taken place, there is no point in going on and on.' 'Let us sit together and negotiate'
Ravi Kishan, the BJP's candidate, is an outsider. The BSP-SP candidate is from the powerful Nishad community. Yogi faces a tough task in ensuring that the Gorakhpur seat, which he represented from 1998 to 2017, stays with the BJP.
The BJP is banking on development. The opposition is raking up caste identities and the dangers of hyper nationalism.
The priest-turned-politician is not someone who minces his words.
Born as Ajay Singh, the diminutive shaven headed politician is known for his provocative speeches and mass following across Uttar Pradesh.
Amit Shah requested Adityanath to tighten the reins of the HYV's activities, now that he was CM. But Adityanath is not prepared to let go so easily.
The priest informed that seven rooms of the CM's residence were 'purified'.
'It will be a grand alliance where they could get the Muslims, Dalits and Yadavs in one camp and pose a serious challenge to whatever the BJP might conjure up in the run-up to the 2019 election.'
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
Almost everyone in Gorakhpur has a story about an Adityanath intervention that helped push through a piece of work that would've been otherwise impossible.
According to an insider, "Winning is all that matters to the BJP. The leaders were warned that he was an undesirable character but they said look at his victory margin."
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