Yogi Adityanath (born Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht; 5 June 1972) is an Indian Hindu monk and politician. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Adityanath has served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 2017. He is the state's longest-serving chief minister and the first to hold the office for two consecutive terms.
Previously, Adityanath served as a member of India's parliament for almost two decades, from 1998 until 2017. At the age of 26, he became one of the youngest Indian parliamentarians in 1998 and went on to win the next five consecutive terms from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency. In 2017, he moved from central to the UP state politics and was elected as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Initially, in 2017, he became a member of the UP legislative council. Subsequently, in 2022, he became a member of the state legislative assembly, having won the election from Gorakhpur Urban Assembly constituency.
Adityanath is also the mahant (head priest) of the Gorakhnath Math, a Hindu monastery in Gorakhpur, a position he has held since September 2014 following the death of Mahant Avaidyanath, his spiritual Guru. He founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a now defunct Hindutva youth militia. He has an image of a Hindu nationalist and a social conservative. Adityanath was placed 5th in 2023 and 6th in 2024 on the list of India's most powerful personalities, conducted by the Indian Express.
Yogi Adityanath was born as Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the village of Panchur, in Pauri Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand) in a Garhwali Rajput family. His late father, Anand Singh Bisht, was a forest ranger. He was the second born in the family, among four brothers and three sisters. He completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand.
He left his home around the 1990s to join the Ayodhya Ram temple movement and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Around that time, he also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief of the Gorakhnath Math. Mahant Avaidyanath was leading the Ayodhya Ram temple movement at that time. While based in Gorakhpur after his initiation, Adityanath has often visited his ancestral village, establishing a school there in 1998.
Adityanath was promoted to the rank of Mahant or high priest of the Gorakhnath Math after the death of Avaidyanath on 12 September 2014. He was made Peethadhishwar (Head Seer) of the Math amid traditional rituals of the Nath sect two days later.
Adityanath belongs to a specific tradition of Hindutva politics in Uttar Pradesh that can be traced back to the Mahant Digvijay Nath. Both Digvijay Nath and his successor Mahant Avaidyanath belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha and were elected to the Parliament on that party's ticket. The head priest (Mahant) of the Gorakhnath Math, a prominent Hindu temple, Mahant Avaidyanath switched to the BJP in 1991, but nevertheless maintained significant autonomy. Four years after Adityanath was designated Avaidyanath's successor, he was elected to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament (the Lok Sabha). Avaidyanath is known as the mentor and guru of Adityanath. Adityanath was elected as a Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur for the first time in 1998 during the 12th Lok Sabha at the age of 26; he was its youngest member at that time. He was elected to Parliament for five consecutive terms, that is, in the 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections.
Adityanath's attendance in the Lok Sabha was 77% and he asked 284 questions, participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member Bills in the 16th Lok Sabha. Adityanath had also said in the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014, that who is communal should be a topic of discussion and that whoever claims that My God, my Prophet is the most superior is communal; to say that the only people who are entitled to life are those who believe in him which is not allowed by the Hindu philosophy of life, the guiding principle of which is "live and let live." After his first electoral win, Adityanath started his own youth organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini, which came to be known for its activities in eastern Uttar Pradesh and was instrumental in Adityanath's meteoric rise. There have been recurrent tensions between Adityanath and the BJP leadership over the allocating election tickets. However, the BJP has not let the tensions mount because Adityanath has served as a star campaigner for the party.
In 2006, he took up links between Nepali Maoists and Indian Leftist parties as a key campaign issue and encouraged Madhesi leaders to oppose Maoism in Nepal. In 2008, his convoy was reportedly attacked while en route to Azamgarh for an anti-terrorism rally. The attack left one person dead and at least six persons injured.
In January 2007, Adityanath along with other BJP leaders had gathered to mourn the death of a man who was killed because of religious violence. He and his supporters were subsequently arrested by the police and lodged in Gorakhpur jail on the charges of disturbing peace and violating prohibitory orders. His arrest led to further unrest during which several coaches of the Mumbai bound Mumbai–Gorakhpur Godan Express were burnt, allegedly by protesting Hindu Yuva Vahini members. The day after the arrest, the District Magistrate and the local police chief were transferred and replaced.
In 1999, Adityanath was charged in connection with the death of head constable Satya Prakash Yadav, who was the personal security officer of Samajwadi Party leader Talat Aziz. The incident occurred in Maharajganj when Adityanath and his supporters reportedly opened fire at Aziz and his supporters. The CB-CID (Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department) conducted an investigation and filed a final report that cleared Adityanath of the charges. In 2019, Allahabad High Court's special court for MPs and MLAs dismissed the 20-year-old murder case, upholding the CB-CID's findings and the CJM court's decision.
In 1998, Yogi Adityanath was elected to the Indian Parliament after joining the BJP; however, there were reports of his strained relations with the state BJP leaders. It has also been alleged that he often derided and criticised the dilution of the Hindutva ideology by the BJP in the 1990s and early 2000s. Having established his independent power base in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, with the support of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and the Gorakhnath Math, he felt confident to be able to dictate terms to the BJP. When his voice was not heard, he revolted by fielding candidates against the official BJP candidates. The most prominent example was the fielding of Radha Mohan Das Agarwal from Gorakhpur on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket in 2002, who then defeated BJP Cabinet minister, Shiv Pratap Shukla by a wide margin. In 2007, Adityanath threatened to field 70 candidates for the state assembly against the BJP candidates. But he reached a compromise in the end. In the 2009 Parliamentary elections, Adityanath was rumoured to have campaigned against the BJP candidates who were then defeated.
Despite his periodic revolts, Adityanath has been kept in good humour by the RSS and the BJP leaders. The deputy prime minister L. K. Advani, the RSS chief Rajendra Singh and the VHP chief Ashok Singhal have visited him in Gorakhpur. During 22–24 December 2006, Adityanath organised a three-day Virat Hindu Mahasammelan at Gorakhpur at the same time as the BJP National Executive Meet in Lucknow. Despite the conflict, several RSS and VHP leaders attended the Mahasammelan, which issued a commitment to pursue the Hindutva goals despite the BJP's claimed "abandonment" of them.
In March 2010, he was among the few BJP leaders, who pushed for a discussion in the party on the women's quota issue, following Gopinath Munde's advocacy for OBC sub-quota within the Women's Reservation Bill.
In 2018, Adityanath supported and campaigned for fellow Hindu monk and BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj, the head of the Taratara math, in the Rajasthan state assembly election.