Yogi has been successful in creating a different image from Brand Modi, also made the record of being CM for the longest time

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also completed one year of his government’s second term. A lot has changed in UP since then on March 25, 2022, when Yogi took charge of the state for the second time. Firstly, the record of being the Chief Minister of UP for the longest time has been made in his name, and secondly, the Yogi government seems determined to fulfill the election promises. Yogi broke the record of forming the government again in the state after 36 years and also made the record of being the chief minister continuously for the longest time in the state after former chief minister late Sampurnanand. Although the opposition keeps accusing the Yogi government regarding law and order, but in the matter of corruption, the Yogi government’s hem is still clearly visible.

On March 24, a day before the completion of one year of the Yogi government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi also patted the Yogi government a lot and proved that there is a good harmony between him and Yogi. Today, Yogi discussed the achievements of his government in a press conference, but the opposition is not seeing everything green in UP. Especially in the matter of crime, the opposition is more uprooted than the Yogi government. He feels that the Yogi government is targeting a particular class of people in the name of crime.

On the other hand, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleges whether unemployment has reduced, farmers’ income has doubled, farmers are getting payment for sugarcane, gas cylinders have become cheaper, how clean mother Ganga-Yamuna is. have happened? He says that neither the students have got the laptop or scooty as promised.

However, according to the Yogi government, 110 out of 130 promises of the Sankalp Patra issued by the BJP at the time of the 2022 assembly elections have either been fulfilled or a decision has been taken to implement them. The Global Investors Conference, which brought an investment proposal of Rs 33.50 lakh crore, acted as a booster for the Yogi government, while the G-20 Summit and the meeting of the Tourism Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) strengthened Yogi’s image at the global level. The roadmap to take the state’s economy to $1 trillion has also been prepared in this one year. All this happened when the Yogi government was also facing some challenges.

Like the last time, this time also the harsh action against the criminals and mafia upheld the image of CM’s bulldozer baba. However, the broad day firing in Prayagraj and the murder of witnesses have dented this image. The Chief Minister has been continuously laying emphasis on sensitive governance and administration. But, the bureaucracy’s attitude on the burning death of mother-daughter under suspicious circumstances in Kanpur Dehat made us realize that a lot remains to be done in terms of sensitivity.

On the political front, the Yogi government faced three Lok Sabha and two assembly by-elections in a year. In this, he won the politically important Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha and Rampur assembly seats (the seat vacated after Azam lost his membership after serving a three-year sentence). Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat was retained by SP and SP’s ally RLD won the Khatauli seat in Muzaffarnagar. Meanwhile, the membership of Swar MLA Abdullah Azam (Azam’s son) was cancelled. Along with this, the government achieved the unimaginable success of demolishing the political citadel of SP’s Muslim face, Azam, and pushing him out of the election scene along with his family. But, the loss of his won seat of Khatauli assembly constituency raised the concern of new equation for the government in West UP. The Khatauli seat fell vacant after BJP MLA Vikram Saini was sentenced to two years in the Muzaffarnagar riots.

If we talk about employment, on one hand the Yogi government is distributing appointment letters to the unemployed, and on the other hand, political allegations have been leveled against his government for abolishing government jobs. To counter this, the Yogi government started Mission-Employment. Appointment letters are being distributed at regular intervals. However, its very first government’s initiative to conduct education-related recruitments under one roof through the Education Services Selection Commission is yet to be implemented. On the other hand, it is a matter of regret that the posts of most of the members including the chairman of the Higher Education Service Commission are vacant in the state. The pending recruitment process has come to a standstill. Similarly, the tenure of the members of the Secondary Education Service Selection Board has come to an end. The examination could not be conducted despite taking out the advertisement for the selection of TGT-PGT and taking the form. People are not getting to know whether the proposed Education Service Selection Commission will make further recruitments or the posts will be filled from Higher Education Commission and Secondary Education Service Selection Commission. Government’s dilemma on issues directly related to the future of lakhs of youth is a matter of discussion.

If we talk about the farmers, the government staff claims that the number of stray animals, which are proving to be a trouble for the farmers as well as the common people, has now reduced to barely 50,000. Rest of the loose animals have been taken to cow protection sites. But, the reality is that even now the nights of all the farmers are getting wasted in guarding the crops. Expenses on fencing separately. Due to the hailstorm and rains of the past days, farmers’ crops were badly damaged, but in the matter of giving compensation, the farmers were angry with the methods of the Yogi government.

Not only on the front of governance and administration, differences of opinion and differences have started coming to the fore at the cabinet level as well. For example, the opposition could not properly level allegations of arbitrariness and corruption in transfers. But, action was taken against the private secretary of Public Works Minister Jitin Prasad on charges of irregularities in the transfers itself and had to be shown the way out. When Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak raised questions on the transfers, Additional Chief Secretary Medical and Health Amit Mohan Prasad had to be removed. The letter written by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti Dinesh Khatik regarding his own cabinet minister Swatantradev Singh also made the government very angry. The private secretary of Excise Minister Nitin Agarwal was also removed. The rest was completed in the group photography of the MLAs after the budget session of the Legislature. Despite being present in the House, both the Deputy Chief Ministers did not attend the photography. On this the opposition got a chance to take a jibe. Differences came to the fore on the issue of caste census. The government and organizations kept talking about the implementation of the decision of the Center on this issue. But, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya was seen openly advocating caste census.

However, the time for the real test of the Yogi government is coming in the form of Lok Sabha elections next year when many challenges may be seen taking the shape of the issue. The results of the Lok Sabha elections will tell how well Yogi has faced these challenges. The BJP, which won the maximum number of seats in 2014 and 2019, has set a target of winning all 80 seats in 2024. Experts say that after becoming the Chief Minister again, Yogi has become stronger than in the first term. In the first innings of the Yogi government, the direct interference of many faces, who were considered opponents behind the scenes, in the administration has come to an end. They are either absolved or sent out. From the Sangh Parivar to the government and organizations, the number of his well-wishers has increased. Confidence has also increased with the experience of governance. If CM’s advisors are to be believed then Yogi does not hesitate at all to take tough and big decisions. They don’t even care much about its profit-loss and public perceptions to be explained. All the decisions are being taken only at their own discretion. In such a situation, better governance can be expected from him.

Yogi has put forward a new model in his governance. This can be called caretaker model of governance. The CM removed Mukul Goyal, the regular Director General of Police appointed by him, in May last year and appointed acting DGP DS Chauhan. Everyone expected that soon he would become a regular DGP. Despite having the same party government both at the center and in the state, ten months have passed, regular DGP could not be appointed. Chauhan is due to retire this month. There are many benefits of keeping DG Intelligence and DGP separate. These two are said to be two different ears of the Chief Minister. However, Yogi did a new kind of experiment by handing over both the posts to the same officer. The witness murder case that shook the state in Prayagraj is being considered as one of the biggest incidents of intelligence failure.

It has been said in Yogi’s first term that he believed in the centralization of power. However, in the second term, he appeared in a completely changed form. Yogi divided 25-25 districts equally between himself and both the Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak. Now all the three main heads of the government are monitoring the governance of the districts equally. Yogi formed groups of ministers and toured the districts and took time to meet with his cabinet colleagues almost every month apart from the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Talking about advisors, there used to be only two advisors in Yogi’s first term. Mrityunjay Kumar was first associated with the government from the initial days as media advisor and then KV Raju as economic advisor. In the second term, the CM added retired IAS officer Awanish Kumar Awasthi as advisor, former UGC chairman Dr. DP Singh as education advisor and GN Singh as food advisor. Retired IAS officer Arvind Kumar is set to be roped in as consultant industry soon. Shravan Baghel has come in place of Abhishek Kaushik, who was sent from the organization as Special Officer to the Chief Minister in the first term, while Sanjeev Singh remains as before.

The Yogi government is also tainted that it could not conduct the civic body elections on time. Due to the expiry of the tenure of the elected representatives, government administrators had to be installed. By the way, many technical and legal reasons are being told for the elections not being held. However, a message has gone out to the public that the bureaucracy intentionally starts election preparations late, so that the elections can be postponed and the officers can spend the money of panchayats and civic bodies without interference from public representatives. In the end, it is also necessary to say that the Yogi-2 government is entirely the capital of Yogi Adityanath’s success. While the 2017 assembly elections were fought on the face of Modi, the 2022 assembly elections were held on the Yogi brand, in which Yogi got a resounding success. He had come out of Modi’s umbrella.

-Ajay Kumar