The year 2022 has proved a blessing for Yogi Adityanath politically. The year saw him becoming the Uttar Pradesh chief minister for the second consecutive term and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning from a seat, which the party had never won in the past.

The Yogi Government’s inclusive governance model helped the lotus bloom in Rampur, a traditionally Samajwadi Party bastion, for the first time. The party, under his leadership, also won from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency, a stronghold of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Yogi Adityanath put an end to family politics in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha constituencies.

Besides, the BJP reclaimed the Wankaner assembly seat in Gujarat from Congress this year after having lost it thrice to the party in the past. This was possible with Yogi Adityanath’s assiduous campaigning for the party.

Political analysts will never forget December 8, 2022, when people voted for Yogi’s good governance in the state, including establishing rule of law through sustained action against the mafia and the criminals, carrying out developmental activities without discrimination and rejected opposition’s appeasement politics to ensure BJP candidate Akash Saxena’s victory from Rampur by a big margin.

Yogi Adityanath demolished the fort of Azam Khan, ten-time MLA from the constituency, with Saxena polling 81,432 (62.06 percent) of votes against the SP candidate’s 47,296 (36.05 per cent) votes.

In the Lok Sabha bypolls for the Rampur seat also, BJP candidate Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi won with 36,7,397 (51.96 per cent) votes against his SP rival’s 32,5,205 (46 per cent). The BJP also defeated the SP in the postal ballot, receiving as many as 293 postal votes while the SP received only 149 votes.

Similarly, in the Azamgarh Lok Sabha by-election held in June, 2022, BJP candidate and popular Bhojpuri cinema actor Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ defeated Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, getting 31,2,768 votes (34.39 per cent), while Dharmendra Yadav received 30,4,089 votes (33.14 per cent). The SP received 252 votes via postal ballot against BJP’s 336.

Not only in UP, Yogi’s magic worked in Gujarat also during the assembly elections. Wankaner, from where the UP Chief Minister had started his campaign for the BJP and from where the Congress party had won three terms in a row, was won by the BJP again in 2022. BJP candidate Jitendra Bhai Somani defeated his Congress rival by 19,955 votes. For the past 15 years, Mohammad Javed Peerzada of Congress had been winning from this seat. Since 1962, the Congress has won eight elections from the seat while the BJP has won only three, including the elections of 2022.