Five reasons why Gorakhpur Sadar is unlike any other contest in UP Elections 2022

Narendra Modi with Yogi Adityanath [Image: Instagram/myogi_adityanath]

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is contesting his first assembly election from the Gorakhpur Sadar constituency. Adityanath represented the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat until 2017, when he was chosen as the UP Chief Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide victory in state polls.

Gorakhpur Sadar, or urban, will go to the polls along with 56 other seats in the sixth phase of the elections on March 3, the penultimate round of seven-phased UP Assembly Election. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Subhavati Shukla, the widow of late BJP leader Upendra Dutt Shukla, against Adityanath. The Congress has fielded Chetna Pandey and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) a first-timer in Khwaja Shamsuddin. Azad Samaj Party's Chandra Shekhar Azad 'Ravan', a young Dalit leader with a base in western Uttar Pradesh, is also in the fray for the seat.

READ | Fighting to restore the honour of my husband: Subhavati Shukla, ex BJP leader’s wife, challenges Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur Urban

There are many factors that make the contest interesting. Here are five reasons that set apart the battle for Gorakhpur Sadar from other contests  in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls of 2022.

Yogi Adityanath’s first assembly election 

Gorakhpur is considered Yogi’s Adityanath’s home turf and a BJP stronghold. Adityanath was the Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur seat since 1998 until he became the Chief Minister in 2017. Gorakhpur Sadar is one of the nine assembly segments under the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP won eight of the nine seats in the 2017 Assembly polls.

The BJP has won the Sadar assembly seat since 1989, losing only once, in 2002, when Adityanath, then a Lok Sabha member, supported Radha Mohan Das Agarwal in the assembly polls. Agarwal later joined the BJP. He has been representing the Gorakhpur Sadar seat in UP Assembly since 2002.

Adityanath is also head priest of the Gorakhnath Temple in the city, which wields considerable influence in eastern Uttar Pradesh, including Gorakhpur.

Also, read | Gorakhpur Ground Report: In Yogi land, a cult following for CM, and a Widow’s challenge

Adityanath has not fought an assembly election in the past. He became a member of UP legislature after he was elected unopposed to the UP Vidhan Parishad (legislative council) in September 2017, nearly six months after being sworn in as Chief Minister. A member of the council of ministers, including the CM, is required to get elected to either of the two houses –  the Vidhan Sabha or the Vidhan Parishad –  within six months of assuming office.

BJP’s message to the Opposition 

Gorakhpur Sadar was a surprise choice of seat for Yogi Adityanath. There had been speculation that the BJP may want him to contest from the temple town of Ayodhya.

By fielding Adityanath from Gorakhpur, the BJP wanted to send a message to Akhilesh Yadav – the chief of the Samajwadi Party who is considered the main challenger to the ruling party – that the Chief Minister was confident enough to face the electorate.

कभी कहा मथुरा… कभी कहा अयोध्या… और अब कह रहे हैं… गोरखपुर… जनता से पहले इनकी पार्टी ने ही इनको वापस घर भेज दिया है… दरअसल इनको टिकट मिली नहीं है, इनकी वापसी की टिकट कट गयी है।

यूपी कहे आज का
नहीं चाहिए भाजपा#बाइस_में_बाइसिकल

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) January 15, 2022

Yadav, who is contesting the assembly election in Karhal, his family stronghold in Mainpuri, hit out at the BJP for fielding Adityanath from Gorakhpur. “He has been sent to his home by his party before the people would do that (by defeating him in the election),” Yadav has said.

Like Adityanath, two of his predecessors, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, did not contest assembly elections, but made their way to the state legislature through the Vidhan Parishad.  Seats in the legislative council are filled through indirect polling by legislative assembly members.

This time, the BJP, according to experts, wanted the Chief Minister to go to the people and get elected.

Widow of a BJP leader takes on CM 

The SP has fielded Subhavati Shukla, wife of the late Upendra Dutt Shukla, to challenge Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s most formidable candidate in the state, in Gorakhpur Sadar.

Shukla unsuccessfully contested a byelection to the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat after Adityanath had to leave the seat to become Chief Minister.

Also, read | UP Assembly Elections 2022: Adityanath’s candidature seems fraught with trouble 

The Shuklas have alleged that the BJP humiliated the family, ignoring Upendra’s Shukla’s contribution in building the party in Gorakhpur. In a recent interview to Moneycontrol, Subhavati said she was fighting the election for restoring the honour of her husband.

The Shukla family had expected that Amit Dutt Shukla, the younger son, would get a nomination to the Gorakhpur Sadar seat, but when the candidacy of Adityanath was announced, the family rebelled and joined the SP.

The Brahmin Vs Thakur matrix 

The rivalry that existed between Upendra Shukla and Adityanath is no secret. Upendra had been close to SP Shukla, another BJP leader from eastern UP, and lost elections repeatedly. The losses were attributed to his perceived rivalry with Adityanath. Akhilesh Yadav, by fielding Subhavati, wants to cash in on the perceived Thakur-Brahmin divide to breach the BJP's consolidated vote bank, according to political analysts.

Upendra was a prominent Brahmin face of eastern UP while Adityanath is a Thakur. There is a perception, especially in eastern UP, that the Brahmins have been neglected since a Thakur became chief minister. The denial of a party ticket to Amit Shukla, Upendra’s son, to contest the seat reinforced the Brahmin versus Thakur narrative.

Also read | Constitution will prevail over Sharia, says Adityanath on hijab row

Among the 450,000 voters in Gorakhpur Sadar are roughly 75,000 Brahmins and 50,000 Thakurs.

 BJP’s shock defeat in 2018 polls 

In what many called a major setback to the BJP, SP’s Praveen Kumar Nishad defeated the saffron party’s Upendra Dutt Shukla from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constitency,  represented five times in a row by Yogi Adityanath for close to two decades till he became Chief Minister. The SP won the prestigious seat in 2018 by 21,916 votes.

#BJPwinningUP pic.twitter.com/0hC5Hvq1vk

— Ravi Kishan (@ravikishann) March 1, 2022

In 2019, BJP candidate and Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan won the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest rival, the SP’s Rambhual Nishad. Praveen Nishad, who won the seat as an SP candidate in 2018, is now a BJP Lok Sabha member from Sant Kabir Nagar.