Rahul Gandhi should learn from his ancestors: Adityanath

BJP MP Yogi Adityanath today slammed Rahul Gandhifor criticising the arrest of JNU student leader over anti-national slogans, and said he and his partymen should take inspiration from their ancestors who had fought for the country's freedom.
"It is unfortunate that a leader of a national party supported the glorification of terrorists. It is a dangerous tendency for the unity and integrity of the country," Adityanath said here.
"Congress should take inspiration from their ancestors who had taken part in India's independence movement and should send Rahul Gandhi to those schools where he could read about them and learn from them," he said.

"The incident at JNU has exposed the hypocrisy of seculars in the country. Whatever happened at JNU would not be acceptable to any civilised society or any person who have taken oath on the Indian Constitution. There can be no greater hypocrisy if someone (who avows to be secular) is not opposing the anti-national activities at JNU campus," he added.
Justifying the arrest of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Adityanath said police must deal with such anti-national elements with sternness.
Saying that Kumar had "not only tarnished his name but a students' image too", Adityanath said JNU had become a "haven" for such activities.

Adityanath, considered a divisive political figure,

enjoys considerable popularity in the state and is known to make provocative statements, be it about Islam or Pakistan.
His elevation as the Chief Minister of the volatile state would mark the culmination of an aggressive two-pronged election campaign by the BJP in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the party's development agenda, but sundry leaders raked up the issue of Ram temple.
The campaign acquired communal overtones following Modi's "Kabristan and Shmashan" remark at an election rally.
A strong votary of construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, Adityanath drove BJP's Hindutva campaign in the eastern UP in the just concluded Assembly polls.

The Yogi, who wears 'Hindutva' on his sleeve and has been accused of involvement in quite a few communal incidents in the past, wields considerable influence among the Hindu hardliners.
He is not known to enjoy good rapport with the BJP leadership and his elevation has left many puzzled, with political circles abuzz with talk of RSS having prevailed over the party in deciding the new chief minister.
Adityanath has rebelled against his party on several occasions, but because of the sway he holds over the 'Hindu' voters, the BJP apparently could not ignore his 'leadership qualities'.
Naidu said, "This is a historic win. This is a watershed moment for BJP...BJP has become a common man's party. UP message is very clear and it is that country wants to move with Modi."

"Mandate is for development, mandate is against corruption, against black money...," he said, with the Yogi by his side.
"This mandate is against caste politics, religous politics and vote bank politics," he said, noting that all the five regions in UP and all communities had overwhlemingly voted for the saffron party.
In the just-concluded Assembly elections, the BJP, riding a Modi wave, stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh, securing a three-fourth majority and demolishing rivals SP-Congress and BSP.
Showing astonishing performance, the BJP got 312 seats in the 403-member Assembly.
Its allies Apna Dal(S) and SBSP bagged nine seats and four seats, respectively, taking the total tally of the combine to 325.

On the other hand, the SP won 47 seats, while its ally the Congress got seven. The BSP won just 19 seats, finishing a dismal third.
Before Adityanath, Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and
Rajnath Singh of BJP have served as UP chief minister.
Kalyan Singh, now Rajasthan Governor, held the high office twice.
Like him, CB Gupta, Charan Singh, ND Tewari, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati too have served as chief minister more than once.
Mayawati has the distinction of holding the post four times, while Mulayam was CM thrice.
Mayawati and the outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav have the credit of completing a full five-year term.

Interestingly, the BSP supremo also has the distinction of serving for the shortest term of four months when she first took over the reins in 1995.
In the Congress era of 1960s and 70s , the state had witnessed stalwarts of the likes of GB Pant, Sampurnanad, CB Gupta, Sucheta Kriplani, TN Singh, Kamalapati Tripathi, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, VP Singh, Sripati Misra and Vir Bahadur Singh holding the highest office.
Of them CB Gupta became chief minister three times.
Charan Singh, Ram Naresh Yadav and Banarsi Das served as non-Congress chief ministers with Yadav and Das holding reins of the state during the Janata Party rule.

Charan Singh, who served as CM twice, represented Bhartiya Kranti Dal.