UP elections 2022: Bhim Army chief to contest against Yogi Adityanath

Bhim Army head Chandrashekhar Azad has decided to run for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath in the 2022 elections. The Azad Samaj Party is led by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad is the first candidate to announce against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur.

Bhim Army head has already stated that he would run against Yogi Adityanath in the upcoming elections in February and March. His party formally confirmed it today, just days after the BJP revealed that Yogi Adityanath would run for governor of Uttar Pradesh from Gorakhpur Sadar.

For the first time, Yogi Adityanath is running for MLA. Chandrashekhar Azad will be running for the first time. After saying in 2019 that he will run against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 34-year-old infamously backed down. He later claimed that because he was without a political party at the time, it was preferable for him to support Mayawati’s and the Congress.

“It is not important for me to win a place in the UP assembly. It is important for me that Yogi Adityanath should not get to be in the assembly. So I will contest wherever he is contesting,” said Azad. The Bhim Army chief and his party has no presence in Gorakhpur or even eastern Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has held the Gorakhpur Sadar assembly seat since 1989, with the exception of one election when it was won by the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha. Radha Mohan Das Agarwal of the BJP reclaimed the seat in 2017 by a margin of over 60,000 votes.

SP and ASP failed conversation:

Talks between SP and ASP recently fell through, with Azad announcing that ASP would contest solo in the next Uttar Pradesh elections. The Bhim Army head alleged at a press conference that SP President Akhilesh Yadav just needs the Dalit vote bank, not Dalit alliances. Akhilesh Yadav, according to the Bhim Army chief, does not understand “social justice” and is silent on Dalit issues. To halt the BJP, Azad said he tried forming a coalition with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP, but it didn’t work out.