The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday chose Yogi Adityanath as their legislature party leader in Uttar Pradesh, which means he will take oath as the chief minister of the state on Sunday, ANI reported. The state will have two deputy chief ministers – Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma.

The decision was taken at a meeting in Lucknow attended by party lawmakers and senior leaders. Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu and national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav were present at the meeting as “observers”.

Adityanath had held a separate meeting with Bhupendra Yadav, Om Mathur, KP Maurya and Sunil Bansal before the MLA meet, reported ANI. Earlier in the day, supporters of the Gorakhpur MP had staged protests demanding that their candidate be made the state CM.

After the Assembly election results on March 11, Adityanath had said, “People have rejected the SP-Congress alliance in a big way; this is a vote for development.” He has been elected an MP from Gorakhpur to the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections.

Adityanath is known for his hardline Hindutva politics. In January, he proposed a US-like immigration ban in India. He had lauded United States President Donald Trump’s immigration order against citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations, and said, “Similar action is needed to contain terror activities in this country.”

Adityanath had also spoken about the alleged exodus from Kairana and promised to deal with the issue “strictly” once the BJP is in power. He compared the situation in Kairana to that of Kashmir over 27 years ago. “Have you forgotten the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990?...If you do not wake up even now, you will also be forced to migrate to other regions,” he had said at the rally.

The BJP won 312 seats in the 403-member state Assembly. Its allies got 13 seats. The Samajwadi Party was decimated in the Assembly elections, which it had fought in alliance with the Congress. Between the two, the parties managed to win only 54 seats. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party got 19 seats. The results were declared on March 11.