Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in a strategy meeting of the BJP leaders from UP on Tuesday night that Yogi Aditynath should contest the polls from Ayodhya to send out a message of aggressive "Hindutva" to party workers and supporters.

The meeting, which was attended by Adityanath, as also deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, discussed this strategy to counter the exit of its OBC ministers and MLAs. The BJP thereby hopes to fight back the aggression being exhibited by backward castes.

Shah was reportedly quoted as saying that “Yogi contesting from Ayodhya would help the party build up the narrative it has been working on since it took up construction of the grand Ram Temple.’’

Yogi was reportedly not happy at Shah's decision since he had planned to contest from home turf Gorakhpur which he has represented numerous times and where he heads the local temple ‘math’. Party sources said he protested, albeit meekly, and Shah overruled him after all endorsed the idea.

Ayodhya falls in the Awadh region, where Samajwadi Party is deeply entrenched; if Adityanath is fielded from there, then it may give a fillip to the Hindutva narrative in the area, including parts of the neighbouring Poorvanchal.