This is Yogi land, he does not need to even campaign, a record win awaits — one gets to hear this a lot upon a boat at the revamped and beautified Ramgarh Tal in Gorakhpur, a seat that will see voting on March 3 during the ongoing seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections.

Union home minister Amit Shah is planning a big roadshow in Gorakhpur city on March 1 for chief minister Yogi Adityanath who is fighting his first assembly election after being the MP of the area for two decades. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is also planning a roadshow a day earlier here for his candidate, Subhavati Shukla, a homemaker and the widow of late BJP leader Upendra Dutt Shukla.

At her modest house, Subhavati says her fight is for “samman” (honour) as the CM did not come to pay his last respects to her husband when he passed away in 2020. Shukla fought the Lok Sabha bypoll from Gorakhpur after Yogi became CM, and lost. He lost the earlier assembly elections too, allegedly as Yogi did not support him. Now, the Shukla family is with the SP, making it a Brahmin vs Thakur fight.

The Gorakhpur transformation

Take a round of Gorakhpur and the transformation of the city under CM Yogi is hard to miss. The new AIIMS has come up, the Ramgarh Tal has a lakefront rivalling the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad and the new fertiliser plant has started functioning. Locals taking a boat ride in the lake gush over the transformation and say Yogi will have a record win. “There is only a Yogi mood in Gorakhpur. The government should be strict like this to keep goons in check, and people want development. The Akhilesh government was total gundagardi (hooliganism),” locals on the boat tell News18 in a long conversation.

Outside the Gorakhnath Temple in the market, the shopkeepers and shoppers say they swear by Yogi as he has finished lawlessness in the state. Adityanath is the mahant (chief priest) of the temple. Many Muslim women are among the shoppers too. “There is a lot of unemployment and jobs and recruitment are simply not there. The last time we had voted for Yogi, we are not decided this time and will discuss with our family,” a young Muslim woman, Afsana, tells News18 in the Gorakhnath market.

On the boat in Ramgarh Tal, a young girl admits that law and order has improved and she feels safer in the city but adds that since she did not get a job after doing a technical course, she will vote for Akhilesh Yadav. But many others say beating Yogi Adityanath from the assembly seat which also houses the Gorakhnath Temple is next to impossible. “Some cite the 2017 Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll that BJP shockingly lost but that will never happen again,” local BJP leaders at the party election office next to the Gorakhnath Temple tell News18.

For pride

At their small house, Subhavati Shukla and her son Arvind are hoping for such a miracle again. “I am fighting this election for the pride of my family, my late husband was humiliated. I am ready to fight against the CM,” the widow says. Her son, Arvind Shukla, says his father laid the foundation of the BJP in Gorakhpur but no senior leader came to pay homage to him after his death in 2020. “This is a fight of a normal person against the system,” Arvind says.

Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan is also in the fray but has hardly any presence in Gorakhpur.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.