Yogi Adityanath, a five-time BJP Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur and the head priest of the Goraknath temple in his constituency, took oath as Uttar Pradesh’s new Chief Minister this afternoon along with two Deputy Chief Ministers and other members of his Cabinet.  The 44-year-old MP was yesterday unanimously elected by the BJP Legislature Party leader.

The swearing-in ceremony was a massive show of strength by the Bharatiya Janata Party to celebrate its landslide win of UP and the oath ceremony at Lucknow’s sprawling Smriti Upvan complex was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, many Union Ministers and BJP Chief Ministers from other States.

Former UP Chief Ministers Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Ministers from 11 States including Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharti, Ananth Kumar and  senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi attended the ceremony.

For the first time, a double-decker Boeing 747 landed at Lucknow airport this morning. The plane carried sadhus and sanyasis to witness the grand show.

Accused of being a polarising leader by political rivals, Yogi Adityanath sought to make clear yesterday evening that as Chief Minister, his focus will be to deliver on PM Modi’s development agenda and ensure good governance in Uttar Pradesh. “I will take UP forward with the PM’s motto of sabka saath sabka vikas,” said Adityanath soon after it was announced that he would be the CM.

“Party has decided on his name. He became a sanyasi and he is a five-time MP. It’s not easy to win with such a large mandate. Ideological orientation and his commitment to fight against the injustice is what make him the leader. He is now the unopposed leader of the State in BJP and its allies,” said Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister.

“Two of the best news that I have got till date is Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister and my younger brother Yogi Adityanath becoming the Chief Minister of UP. Yogi will take development and patriotism hand in hand. Also, this is the biggest slap on the face of communists,” said firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti.