Yogi Adityanath, the larger-than-life saffron-clad monk Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, is apparently being cut to size by his own BJP party high command. There are indications that he may not be the face or mascot of crucial assembly elections looming barely six months away in India’s politically most important state. Already, efforts are afoot with the approval of the ruling party big wigs in New Delhi to dismantle the pedestal constructed by vast publicity funds elevating Yogi as an invincible emperor of Lucknow.

The latest illustration of efforts to shrink Adityanath’s image is a public declaration this month by the centrally appointed Uttar Pradesh party chief, Pankaj Chaudhury, that the coming state polls would not be fought pitching the current Chief Minister as the new incumbent but under a collective leadership spearheaded by the Prime Minister, Home Minister, and other senior state leaders, including Chaudhury himself, with Yogi as just one of them. He had made a similar statement less than two months ago.

Significantly, the new party chief was declared by the BJP high command last December almost overnight, reportedly, without the Chief Minister’s knowledge. While the ostensible reason for appointing the OBC Kurmi leader was his electorally influential caste that had abandoned the BJP in its 2024 parliamentary poll setback in the state, Yogi’s own Kurmi nominee, Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh, was pointedly ignored. Interestingly, Chaudhry hails from the same Gorakhpur region as Adityanath, and the seven-time........

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