Here's How Ajay Singh Bisht Became Gorakhpur's Yogi Adityanath And UP's New Chief Minister!

The chief minister-designate of Uttar Pradesh was born in the hills to Rajput parents. According to the records of the Gorakhnath Math, which he now heads, Yogi Adityanath was born Ajay Singh Bisht on June 5, 1972.

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Little is known of his pre-Yogi days, except that he got a BSc degree in maths and renounced his family at the age of 21 to become a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, then the head priest of Gorakhnath Math.

In the years that followed, Adityanath trained as a sanyasi, protecting cows, learning Hindu texts, and emerging, in less than five years since he was co-opted, as his Guru's most beloved disciple.

As the successor of Guru Gorakhnath temple, he also ran schools and colleges and managed a hospital.

Yogi's tryst with politics began in 1996 when he was named in-charge of managing the election campaign for Mahant Avaidyanath. In 1998, when Avaidyanath retired from active politics, he declared Yogi as his heir apparent, and also the nominee for the next Lok Sabha polls.

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In 1998, when he was just 26, Yogi Adityanath became the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha, going on to win successive terms in 1999, 2004, 2009 and in 2014.

The 44-year-old Yogi Adityanath is not just the popular choice among BJP's 325 legislators but also commands a giant following in eastern UP.

Even though he remained the torchbearer of the Hindu cause, Yogi also played the 'Vrihad Hindu' card attempting, consciously, to widen his popularity base not just among the core Hindu voters, but also reaching out to the nearly disenfranchised Dalit community.

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His Hindu hardliner image was strengthened after the 'Pachrukhiya' incident in Maharjganj district. On February 10, 1999, when Samajwadi Party member Talat Aziz was delivering a speech as a part of SP's 'jail bharo andolan', some miscreants opened fire on her. Rumours spread that the fire was opened following Yogi's directions.

It was then that people began chanting slogans of 'Gorakhpur mein rehna hai to Yogi Yogi kehna hai'.

In 2002, he set up Hindu Yuva Vahini, a socio-cultural outfit, but whose volunteers were known to use strong-arm tactics in riots, cow-protection drives and in their attempts to curtail 'love jihad'. In 2005, Yogi led a purification drive ¡ª Ghar Wapasi ¡ª under which many 'returned' to Hinduism. Yogi landed in jail for his acts. He faced charges ranging from an attempt to murder to defiling places of worship, rioting with deadly weapons and criminal intimidation. In recent years, Yogi has made little attempt to couch his ambitions.

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Early signs that he was ready to step out of the Mutt to take on a larger role than that of an MP came when Sunil Singh, a Yogi aide and state president of HYV, split from BJP and entered into an alliance with Shiv Sena. Singh announced that HYV candidates will contest against BJP in the 2017 assembly polls. Their grouse: revenge for the disrespect BJP showed to Yogi by denying him space in the party's national executive for the 2017 elections. While many believe this was a move orchestrated by Yogi to hammer in his growing clout ¡ª without which BJP could not progress in UP ¡ªthe Mahant of Goarkhnath Mutt sacked Singh from HYV on the ground that it was a cultural organisation that could not contest elections.