Lok Sabha polls an acid test for Adityanath to prove his merit as a leader

The BJP faced poll reverses in Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where Adityanath had addressed nearly 75 rallies

In the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2017, which subsequently morphed into a triangular contest between the Congress-Samajwadi Party (SP) combine, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), speculation was rife about then Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath, lobbying for tickets for his candidates in about a dozen constituencies in eastern UP, or Purvanchal.

It was no secret that Adityanath and his supporters, predominantly comprising the influential Hindu Yuva Vahini (HUY), a self-acclaimed social and cultural organisation founded by him, were at the same time peeved at the BJP not projecting him as the