Yogi Adityanath was poised to be Narendra Modi's successor. The two-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has been seen as hugely popular not just in his home state but also in the Hindi belt per se.
However, if Samajwadi Party manages to win 35 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the Brand Yogi will take a severe beating. The BJP will find it hard to see him as an automatic successor to Modi.
Politically speaking, it will be good news to Amit Shah. Before the rise of Yogi, Shah was expected to be Modi's chosen man. But with Yogi delivering the 2022 Assembly elections in style (under him, the BJP's vote share went up after five years of rule), Shah took a backseat.
In the run up to the LS polls recently, the Prime Minister suggested that Yogi is more popular than him in UP. But today's results could put a question mark on this perception. Muslims, Yadavs and a good chunk of Dalits and traditional Congress voters have firmly stood behind Akhilesh Yadav despite the Ram Mandir sentiment. The Yogi government will have to rework its strategies to secure the 2027 Assembly elections. Otherwise, it will be the end of the Yogi Era. And the post-Modi succession plan will itself become precarious.
The above analysis stands only if Modi secures the third term as the PM. The final result is some hours away.
