"A second FIR was filed against BJP’s controversial stalwart Yogi Adityanath for alleged hate speech, within 24 hours of the first one. While the first one was filed in Lucknow, the second was filed in Noida following the Elections Commissions orders. The EC had Thursday "reprimanded" BJP MP Yogi Adityanath for violating the Model Code of Conduct and asked the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) to ensure that an FIR is lodged against him...
"While Rajnath Singh faces a battle to remain a central figure in the Bharatiya Janata Party, party president Amit Shah has already begun to look into who could become their new Thakur face in Uttar Pradesh. Although Thakurs constitute only about 8% of the population of Uttar Pradesh, they are one of the more influential caste groupings in the state. Two names already being discussed with a view to effecting this generational shift in the BJP’s Thakur leadership are Sangeet Som, the BJP MLA from Sardhana in western UP, and Yogi Adityanath, the Lok Sabha representative from Gorakhpur.
"Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday refused to comment on a video that showed him asking his supporters to marry girls of another community. This undated video elicited strong criticism within the BJP fold as well. “I don't want to make any clarification on the issue. It is the responsibility of media to examine a video before showing it,” he said.
"Gorakhpur: Fear has gripped Muslims in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh after Hindu goons affiliated to the Hindu Yuva Vahini made provocative speeches on Wednesday in presence of local administration and police and attacked Muslims. The incident occurred in Gainsetry Thana. The situation is tense but under control, claimed said police which reportedly remained as mute spectator during whole episode and slapped cases against six Muslims under various stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code..."
" With the BJP having come to power, Hindu outfits the VHP, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) and the ABVP, the RSS students’ wing, are going for an organisational expansion in Uttar Pradesh. Separate efforts by the three organisations had helped the BJP win 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where assembly elections are due in 2016. In a recent meeting, HYV head Yogi Adityanath, a BJP MP, set a target of at least one lakh volunteers in each district by September-end. The HYV has 90 units in 75 districts, with an average 7,000 volunteers in each.
Yogi Adityanath, the leader of Hindu Yuva Vahini, prime accused in the 2007 Gorakhpur riots, and sitting MP for Gorakhpur (Eastern UP) is known to have turned even small flare-ups into full-blown communal wars. "One day he campaigns for Jagdambika Pal in Domariaganj, the next day for Harish Dwivedi in Basti. Then he flies to Kushi Nagar in his chopper or stops at Deoria... The nationalism he talks about, mostly of the Hindu kind, is sharp and grating. Often, Vahini members join in to lecture audiences on the need for unity if the "onslaught of Islam" is to be halted.
"...Recent reports describe Adityanath - a Hindutva hardliner, and prime accused in Gorakhpur's 2007 communal riots - as a key coordinator of the BJP's election strategy for Uttar Pradesh, the state with the most Lok Sabha seats. He first won the Gorakhpur seat when 26-years-old; now 42, he has fashioned himself as the BJP's most recognised face in east Uttar Pradesh... In 1999, Yogi Adityanath won Gorakhpur by the slimmest of margins - 7,339 votes; 10 years later in 2009, he romped home with a winning margin of 2,20,000 votes.
If one tries to understand the developments in Gorakhpur and its neighbouring areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh (Poorvanchal) from January 26 to 31, 2007 through the eyes of the print and electronic media, one moves further away from the truth. It is a sordid story of a highly communalised media conjuring up a riot, collaborating with BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, a Bal Thackeray clone and heir to the Gorakhnath Peeth operating from the Gorakhnath temple.
