Dayashankar Singh is not the only Thakur leader who has put the Bharatiya Janata Party in a tight spot. Even as the BJP deals with the aftermath of Singh's insult to Dalit leader Mayawati, a more ambitious Thakur, Yogi Adityanath, has lobbed another bombshell.
After having tried to get himself projected as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, the Gorakhpur MP has now resorted to a new pressure tactics – to get at least 18 of his men on the list of party’s candidates for the upcoming state Assembly elections.
Though the BJP is far from taking a decision on its candidates, Adityanath’s list – consisting of men who belong mostly to his Hindu Yuva Vahini outfit, and to the Thakur caste – has left the party dumbfounded.
“These are not demands but only suggestions,” the Hindu Yuva Vahini state president Sunil Singh told Scroll.in. “Every leader is entitled to give his suggestions to the party leadership. It is up to the leadership to take a final call on Yogiji’s suggestions.”
Beyond culture
The Hindu Yuva Vahini is Adityanath’s personal outfit through which he has tried to assert influence in Gorakhpur and the neighbouring districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, independent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates. Though the Vahini claims to be a cultural organisation, its motivations, like that of the RSS, are solely political. But while Brahmins occupy a special position in the RSS, the predominance of Thakurs is one of the most striking things about the Hindu Yuva Vahini.
Adityanath’s move comes on the heels of his failure to elicit a concrete promise from the BJP brass to project him as the party’s chief minister for next year's Assembly elections.
On July 22, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Gorakshapeeth temple at Gorakhpur to unveil a statue of the late Mahant Avaidyanath, a group of sadhus reportedly urged him to make Adityanath the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate.
However, the prime minister refrained from making such a commitment to them. Worse, Modi denied Adityanath any special treatment at the public rally that followed the same day at Gorakhpur.
A setback
“On July 22, Adityanath expected a signal from the prime minister that he would be the party’s face in the UP elections,” said a senior BJP leader who was present in the rally. “But instead of any such a signal, Modiji mentioned his name in his speech along with party’s other MPs of eastern UP.”
This was a setback for Adityanath, since his Hindu Yuva Vahini had worked hard for weeks to make Modi’s Gorakhpur rally a success.
According to the BJP leader, it was this gesture that probably led Yogi to attempt to pressure the party to let him have a major say in the distribution of tickets in constituencies that are under the influence of Hindu Yuva Vahini.
