Can The Saffron CM Meet The Tough Challenges Of UP?

Can the Yogi Focus His Energies on a Development Agenda or Will His Hindutva Baggage Weigh Him Down?

- Ajit Kumar Jha

It took Yogi Adityanath 10 days to move into his official residence at 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow after he was sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on March 19. His midday move from a spartan, non-air-conditioned suite at the state government’s VVIP Guest House into the sprawling bungalow on March 29 was timed for Chaitra Navratra, the auspicious first day of the Hindu calendar. For over a week before his move, the white gate-fronted residence was ritually cleansed by hymn-chanting, cow milk-sprinkling priests, the staff diligently stripping all traces of leather from the house and workmen building a new cowshed for six cows from Gorakhpur for the yogi and current head priest of the Gorakhnath Mutt to greet for his pre-dawn rituals.

Sanctifying the CM’s opulent residence is the easy part. Governing India’s bellwether state—indeed, delivering on the 25-page Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra (the party manifesto), which the saffron-clad CM made his bureaucrats recite on his first day in office—is unlikely to be a walk through Lucknow’s iconic Janeshwar Mishra Park.