At the age of 26, Adityanath was the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha. He was elected to the Gorakhpur Legislative Assembly for five consecutive years (in the elections of 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014). In the 16th Lok Sabha, Adityanath’s attendance rate was 77 percent, and he presented 284 questions, participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member bills.
For more than a decade, Adityanath has had a strained relationship with the BJP. He often mocked and criticized the BJP, attacking its thin Hindutva philosophy. Having built up his independent power base in eastern Uttar Pradesh with the help of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and the Gorakhnath Math, he felt confident in his ability to impose his will on the BJP. When he felt that his voice was not being heard, he revolted by nominating candidates against the official candidates of the BJP.
Adityanath was one of several BJP MPs to defy the party’s leadership on the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament in March 2010. In the 2018 Rajasthan state assembly election, he campaigned for the BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj.