Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be contesting the Assembly election from his home turf – Gorakhpur City, the BJP announced on Saturday, 15 January.
This means that Yogi will become the first CM of the state in the last 18 years to stand for Assembly elections. His last two predecessors – Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati – were both members of the Upper House.
The Gorakhpur seat is considered to be a stronghold of the Gorakhnath Math, whose present Mahant or Chief Priest is Yogi Adityanath. Currently, this seat belongs to BJP candidate Radha Mohan Das Agarwal.
CM Adityanath had won this seat five times, until he became the chief minister in 2017.
Earlier, there were also speculations that Adityanath would be contesting from Ayodhya.