LUCKNOW: In order to plan its re-structuring and expand its outreach, the Uttar Pradesh unit of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an outfit launched by Yogi Adityanath as his personal force in 2002, has been dissolved. According to a senior leader of the outfit, the HYV will be revamped soon so that it can assist the BJP not only in its traditional base in Eastern UP but in the western region as well during the 2024 general elections
HYV’s UP in-charge, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, dissolved the state, regional and district units as well as organisational departments.
The decision to dissolve the UP unit of HYV was taken during Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur visit on Tuesday.
The organisation, set up by Yogi when he was Gorakhpur’s MP, had played a key role not only in planning and executing his election campaigns during the 2004, 2009 and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but also worked hard to carry out the campaign of BJP leaders.
According to Raghvendra Pratap Singh, all the units of the outfit will soon be revamped. “The old units had been working for long. Now the organisation will be overhauled and young and committed workers would be given chance to work in it,” he added.
The HYV leader, a close confidante of Yogi, claimed that the re-organisation of the outfit was being planned to extend assistance to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in winning the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
In fact, HYV was disbanded by Yogi Adityanath himself after assuming the role of UP CM in 2017. The outfit’s office-bearers and members, who rebelled against the decision to disband it, were expelled from it — including the then state president Sunil Singh who later joined the Samajwadi Party.
The outfit then gradually withdrew from political activities and shifted its focus to social issues.
In January 2022, however, the outfit re-started political activities after the BJP decided to field Adityanath from the Gorakhpur Urban seat for the Assembly election. The BJP bagged 28 of the 29 assembly seats in the Gorakhpur division.
However, after the suspension of its political responsibilities, HVY donned the mantle more of a social organisation during the last five years. It got engaged in distribution of ration cards, carrying out anti-Covid and anti-Japanese Encephalitis awareness campaigns and reaching out to the beneficiaries with welfare schemes in coordination with the local administration in and around Gorakhpur division.
“The HVY has been playing crucial role in strengthening the base of the BJP in various districts by launching various social and mass awareness campaigns. Its cadre worked for the victory of BJP candidates in 2022 Assembly elections by reaching out to voters across urban and rural areas,” said senior BJP leaders seeking anonymity.
HVY was conceptualised and brought into force by Yogi Adityanath owing to his differences with the BJP brass in 2002 over ticket distribution in eastern UP. Over the years, the number of HVY members swelled from 300 in 2002 to over 15 lakh in 2017. In Gorakhpur division alone, five lakh youth joined the outfit with its rural outreach.
The activities of the HYV, however, did not go down well with the local BJP leaders in 2002 and corresponding years till 2017 as they considered the outfit a “private outfit of Adityanath to serve his political interests.”
