Chief Minister
What position did Yogi Adityanath take from Mar 2017 to Sep 2017?
Yogi Adityanath Yogi Adityanath ( born Ajay Mohan Bisht ; 5 June 1972 ) is an Indian Hindu monk and politician serving as the 22nd and current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh , in office since 19 March 2017 . He was appointed as the Chief Minister on 26 March 2017 after the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) won the 2017 State Assembly elections , in which he was a prominent campaigner . He has been the Member of Parliament from the Gorakhpur constituency , Uttar Pradesh , for five consecutive terms since 1998 . Adityanath is also the Mahant or head priest of the Gorakhnath Math , a Hindu temple in Gorakhpur , a position he has held since the death of his spiritual father , Mahant Avaidyanath , in September 2014 . He is also the founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini , a Hindu Nationalist organisation . He is often considered a Hindu nationalist due to his controversial views . He has an image as a right-wing populist Hindutva firebrand . Early life and education . Yogi Adityanath was born as Ajay Mohan Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the village of Panchur , in Pauri Garhwal , Uttar Pradesh ( now in Uttarakhand ) . 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 bachelors 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 . Around that time , he also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath , the chief of the Gorakhnath Math . Upon taking Diksha as sanyasi of the Nath tradition , he was given the name Yogi Adityanath and designated as the successor of the Mahant Avaidyanath . While based in Gorakhpur after his initiation , Adityanath has often visited his ancestral village , establishing a school there in 1998 . Spiritual career . Adityanath renounced his family in 1993 , at the age of 21 and became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath , the then high priest of Gorakhnath Math . He was promoted to the rank of Mahant or high priest of the Gorakhnath Math after the death of his teacher Mahant Aavaidyanath on 12 September 2014 . Yogi Adityanath was made Peethadhishwar ( Head Seer ) of the Math amid traditional rituals of the Nath sect on 14 September 2014 . Early political career . Scholar Christophe Jaffrelot states that Yogi Adityanath belongs to a specific tradition of Hindutva politics in Uttar Pradesh that can be traced back to the Mahant Digvijay Nath , who led the capture of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya for Hindus on 22 December 1949 . Both Digvijay Nath and his successor , Mahant Avaidyanath , belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha and were elected to the Parliament on that partys ticket . After the BJP and the Sangh Parivar joined the Ayodhya movement in the 1980s , the two strands of Hindu nationalism came together . Avaidyanath switched to the BJP in 1991 , but nevertheless maintained significant autonomy . Yogi Adityanath was appointed Avaidyanaths successor as the Mahant of Gorakhnath Math in 1994 . Four years later , he was elected to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament ( the Lok Sabha ) . After his first electoral win , Adityanath started his own youth wing Hindu Yuva Vahini , which has been known for their activities in the eastern Uttar Pradesh and was instrumental in Adityanaths meteoric rise . There have been recurrent tensions between Adityanath and the BJP leadership over the allocation of 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 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 . Member of Parliament . Adityanath was the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha at 26 . He has been elected to the Parliament from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms ( in 1998 , 1999 , 2004 , 2009 and 2014 elections ) . Adityanaths attendance in Lok Sabha was 77% and he has asked 284 questions , participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member Bills in the 16th Lok Sabha . Relations with the BJP . Adityanath has had strained relations with the BJP for more than a decade . He often derided and undermined the BJP , criticising its dilution of the Hindutva ideology . Having established his own 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 2009 Parliamentary elections , Adityanath was rumoured to have campaigned against the BJP candidates who were then defeated . Despite his periodic revolts , Yogi 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 BJPs claimed abandonment of them . In March 2010 , Adityanath was one of the several BJP MPs who defied the party whip on the Womens Reservation Bill in the Parliament . In 2018 , he campaigned for BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj for Rajasthan state assembly election . Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh . He was a prominent campaigner for the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh . He was appointed Chief Minister , of the state on Saturday , 18 March 2017 and sworn in the next day on 19 March , after the BJP won the assembly elections . The illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh faced shutdowns from the administration after his becoming the Chief Minister . Yogi ordered the forming of anti-romeo squads . He imposed a blanket ban on cow-smuggling and stay on UPPSC results , exams and interviews till further order . He imposed a ban on tobacco , pan and gutka in government offices across the state and made the officials pledge to devote 100 hours every year for the Swachh Bharat Mission . More than 100 policemen were suspended by the Uttar Pradesh police . After becoming the CM of UP , he kept around 36 ministries to himself including Home , Housing , Town and country planning department , Revenue , Food and Civil Supplies , Food Security and drug administration , Economics and statistics , Mines and Minerals , Flood control , stamp and registry , prison , general administration , secretariat administration , vigilance , personnel and appointment , information , institutional finance , planning , estate department , urban land , UP state reorganisation committee , administration reforms , programme implementation , national integration , infrastructure , coordination , language , external aided project , Relief and Rehabilitation , Public Service Management , Rent Control , Consumer protection , weights and measures . In his first cabinet meeting held on 4 April 2017 , decision was taken to waive off loans of nearly 87 lakh small and marginal farmers of Uttar Pradesh , amounting to . For Indias Independence Day celebrations in 2017 , his government singled-out Muslim religious schools to provide video evidence that their students had sung the Indian national anthem . In July 2018 , Yogi Adityanath along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Moon Jae-in , President of South Korea , inaugurated the worlds largest smartphone manufacturing factory in Noida , Uttar Pradesh . His government was credited for making 50 megawatts of power and a 22-km-long electricity line in record four months for the Samsung mobile plant . The New York Times relayed analysts estimations of Adityanath as a candidate for Prime Minister of India in 2024 , provided he delivers on some fronts . In August 2020 , India Today-Karvy Insightss Mood of the nation survey showed Yogi as best performing Chief Minister in India . The Government of Uttar Pradesh led by Adityanath faced major challenges during the migrant movement from urban to rural parts of the state , questioning the pandemic management . However , according to World Health Organizations November 2020 report , Adityanaths administration showed exemplary performance in strategic response and contact tracing both in rural and urban parts of the states . In September 2020 , Adityanath asked his government to come up with a strategy to prevent religious conversions in the name of love and even considered passing an ordinance for the same if needed . On 31 October , Adityanath announced that a Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance , 2020 to curb Love Jihad would be passed by his government . The Uttar Pradesh state cabinet cleared the ordinance on 24 November 2020 following which it was approved and signed by state Governor Anandiben Patel on 28 November 2020 . Personal views . On 3 January 2016 , a day after the terrorist attack on an Indian air force base in Pathankot allegedly by Pakistani terrorists , Adityanath compared Pakistan to Satan . Adityanath has praised the US President Donald Trumps decision to enact a ban on citizens from 7 Muslim-majority countries entering the United States and has called for India to adopt similar policies to tackle terrorism . Controversies . In January 2007 , Adityanath 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 Gorkhapur 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 activists . The day after the arrest , the District Magistrate and the local police chief were transferred and replaced . In 2011 , the documentary film Saffron War – Radicalization of Hinduism accused Adityanath of promoting communal disharmony in Uttar Pradesh through hate speeches . In 2017 , his government ordered withdrawal of around 20,000 politically motivated cases , including those against himself and other politicians . Statements . In 2010 , when opposing the Womens Reservation Bill , Adityanath said that reservation doesnt affect womens domestic responsibilities such as childcare . He added that if men develop feminine traits they become gods , but if women develop masculine traits they become demons . In an undated video that surfaced on YouTube during August 2014 , Adityanath , reportedly during a public speech at Azamgarh , referring to the religious conversions due to inter-religious marriages , has said , if they take one Hindu girl , we will take 100 Muslims girls . In the same video , he continues by saying , if they kill one Hindu , there will be 100 that we and pauses , as the gathered crowd shouts : kill . In February 2015 , while speaking at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s ‘Virat Hindu Sammelan’ , Adityanath commented : If given a chance , we will install statues of Goddess Gauri , Ganesh and Nandi — Hindu deities — in every mosque . In June 2015 , Adityanath , while talking about Surya Namaskara , and Yoga said that those who want to avoid Yoga can leave Hindustan . He requested those who see communalism in the Sun God to drown themselves in the sea or live in a dark room for the rest of their lives . During the intolerance debate in the Indian media in late 2015 , Adityanath commented that actor Shah Rukh Khan was using the same language as Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed . Bibliography . Books by Yogi Adityanath . - Haṭhayoga svarūpa evam sādhanā , Gorakhapura : Śrī Gorakshanātha Mandira , 2007 , 148 p .