The Uttar Pradesh government headed by Yogi Adityanath will complete one year on 19th March, 2018.
44-year-old Adityanath, considered to be controversy's favourite child , has been making headlines ever since he took over the reins of power in India’s most populous state.
Yogi Adityanatgh is hugely popular among the BJP cadre and has been in high demand for election campaign in various states. His popularity can be assessed from the fact that he was asked by the BJP to address election rallies in the recently-concluded Tripura Assembly elections. According to media reports, Yogi Adityanath campaigned in 9 Assembly seats of Tripura and the BJP emerged victorious in 8 of these constituencies.
A five-term Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath was born as Ajay Singh Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the village of Panchur, in Pauri Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand).
His father Anand Singh Bisht was a forest ranger. He completed his bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand.
Adityanath is also the head priest of the Gorakhnath Math, a position he has held since the death of his guru Mahant Avaidyanath, in September 2014.
The UP chief minister is famous for his powerful oratory.
Though Yogi Adityanath is known more for his ‘hard-line Hindutva’ image, it is to his credit that people in Gorakhpur, especially around the temple, hold him in high esteem irrespective of whichever caste or community they belong to. Even Muslims around the temple are given "protection" by the Yogi.
Yogi Adityanath comes from a Rajput family.
Ajay Singh Bisht left his home quite early in his life under the influence of Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief priest of the Gorakhnath Math and became his disciple.
He was given the name 'Yogi Adityanath' and designated as the successor of the Mahant Avaidyanath.
Yogi Adityanath was made Peethadhishwar of the Gorakhnath Math amid traditional rituals of the Nath sect on 14 September 2014.
Yogi was a prominent campaigner for the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. He was appointed Chief Minister on 18 March 2017 and sworn in the next day on 19 March, after the BJP won the assembly elections.
He is equally in demand for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections.
Some of the decisions taken by Yogi Adityanath as UP chief ministers, like formation of anti-romeo squads and blanket ban on cow-smuggling, were strongly objected to by opposition parties.
