Yogi was crowned as the chief minister as a nominee of the Sangh chief but Manoj Sinha a minister of state in the NaMo government and choice of NaMo was not allowed even entry to the hall for the new legislators meeting for electing their new leader. He was turned back from the hall entry gate with a message that he was not the choice. NaMo had delivered a victory of a record number of seats 325 out 403 seats in the House. Yogi was assigned no role because of his miserable past performance.

In his official position also he could not give evidence of his ability and had lost all three bye-elections to the Lok Sabha after becoming the chief minister including the Gorakhpur seat he had vacated on becoming the chief minister. The Gorakhpur Math had lost the seat for the first time since 1980 displaying his poor hold on the state voters.

Yet he was assigned to be the chief campaigner for the party in assembly polls in six states in 2018. The party won only one Gujarat but lost in five states including three under its rule, including the two under its command for three terms. Gujarat gave back the state to the party as the urban voters overwhelmingly responded to personal appeal by NaMo. The reluctant state units were directed to use services of Yogi as the chief party campaigner.

NaMo again provided evidence of his hold on poor by winning 20 seats more than previous performance in 2014 though the Sangh leadership was certain of his defeat, Yogi gave evidence of his mistrust for NaMo by refusing to accommodate in his state cabinet Arvind Sharma a close confidante of NaMo as his trusted man in the state bureaucracy. The officer of the 1988 batch of IAS batch had drawn close to the chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and soon became his man of confidence.

He was inducted in the prime ministers special team of bureaucrats. But he was retired and sent to Uttar Pradesh to be a member of the state legislative council. It was hoped and speculated widely that he would be accomodated in the state cabinet with important assignment but his wait got prolonged to three years. It was apparent Yogi did not want a Modi confidante in his team. The very fact Sharma entered the political arena in a state from his powerful position in the Prime Minister’s Office was the cause of suspicion for Yogi. His refusal to induct Sharma in his cabinet was adding to already sore relations.

The whispering in the ruling party circles had often mentioned Yogi as the most probable alternate to NaMo. His name continued to figure in the influential circles as everyone could sense the Sangh chief’s rebuff to NaMo in imposing Yogi by making him the chief minister... As the Sangh chief did not show any sign of relenting in his dislike for NaMo, talks of his eventual midterm replacement was considered to be a strong possibility. Even NaMo would not have missed to see the game behind his back.

Yogi defied the ban on public transport services by the lock down to ferry few hundred thousand families passing on their feet through his state from the work stations to their home towns in the Eastern states. Yogi claimed he was moved by humanitarian consideration to see plight of so many poor on their feet. The chief minister was moved by humanitarian cause or human consideration to show hollowness of the NaMo claims of the pandemic that needed stern solution is the issue that needs investigation.

It may appear to be a mere conjecture without supportive evidence. The circumstantial evidence suggests it was more of a political move than a humanitarian gesture. Four thousand buses were not enough to provide relief to even a million passengers in their four round trips in ten days by four thousand buses and six million humans had passed through the state in ten days.

Even the chief minister would not send buses without regulatory authority to ensure safe numbers in each bus. The real purpose appears to be of proving that NaMo was not fighting the pandemic but struggling to escape the wrath of the Sangh. Yogi claimed no impact till March 2021 of the corona virus as the pandemic in his state and then suddenly took full about turn two days before the Bhagwat verdict of the NaMo failure to combat the pandemic, to say that the pandemic had reached every village in his state. The germs were more fashion conscious the claim indicated by reaching every village only in April 2021 and not earlier 13 months.

His extremely meticulous sartorial and facial looks did not hide realities of hollow inside. No senior could have missed his bluff in the midnight air strike after he was compelled to give up his efforts to realize the Vajpayee dream of establishing good relations with Pakistan. Even the defence minister was not taken in confidence in careful planning of operation to cause impression of striking at Pakistan but leaving ample space for the enemy to be comfortable.

My experience on several occasions in the last six decades is politicians turn to the supernatural forces, not to depend on them but to influence masses. In December 1979, there was a sudden flood of astrological predictions of Jagjivan Ram becoming the Prime Minister after the elections. The then Janata Party president sharply told me not to believe. He added the astrology is being used to win over the fence sitters by helping them to vote for the forces that will stand behind him.

Similarly now number of astrological prediction of NaMo era end is increasing. Some even dare to give specific date for his stepping down as the aura of moon will begin from that date in horoscope of NaMo. Horoscope can be dependable to a large extent only but for those who use astrology as science and not to mint money. To make a horoscope for such a science one needs to have exact time up to the last second of the birth as planets move fast and even split second difference does change all calculations. Neither NaMo nor his mother knows the exact time of his birth. How can even a good astrologer predict on future of NaMo? But predictions that the NaMo era ends in mid December seems to be a trick to tilt the balance of public opinion against him.