Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath took oath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Friday at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP President JP Nadda, among others.
Supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party held special prayers in temples in Varanasi, Mathura and other parts of the state on Friday in run-up to the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected government.
Yogi Adityanath was unanimously elected as the leader of the newly elected legislatures of the BJP in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and co-observer Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das on Thursday.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium, the venue having the capacity to accommodate 50,000 people.
A poster boy for Hindutva, saffron-robed Adityanath was considered a rabble-rouser and often accused of making provocative remarks against Muslims.
This time round, his appointment as the CM wasn't much of a surprise. During the assembly poll campaign, BJP bigwigs hailed the success of Adityanath-Narendra Modi 'double-engine' government in the state over the past five years. And the CM tweeted a telling picture of Modi placing a hand over his shoulders.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah even said Adityanath needed to be back as CM in 2022 if the party sought to return to power at the Centre in 2024. With the Bharatiya Janata Party return to power, the monk-politician has consolidated his place in the organisation.
Adityanath was accused of making deliberate attempts to "polarise" the state during the 2022 election campaign. He talked of an 80-20 split of votes, which many thought referred to the Hindu-Muslim ratio in the state, even if the CM denied this.
In his speeches, he also claimed that people who say "abba jaan" benefitted during the Samajwadi Party's term in office, when there were power cuts on Diwali but uninterrupted electricity supply during Eid.
But he also spoke about his government's development agenda, its attempt to implement as best as possible the Centre's welfare schemes -- and many believe that this was a major factor in the BJP's victory.
The BJP-led alliance had won 273 of 403 seats in the just-concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. While the BJP got 255 seats, its allies Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (S) bagged 18.
