Will Yogi Adityanath run for PM post in future? Watch what UP CM said amid Modi ’retirement’ claims

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on April 1 responded to growing speculation about his political future as prime minister of India.

Adityanath said that politics was “not a full-time job for him” and that he remains a Yogi at heart, dismissing swirling rumours about him becoming the prime minister in the future.

“I am the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and the party has placed me here to serve the people of the state,” Adityanath said in an interview with PTI.

When asked about the growing support for him as a potential prime minister, Adityanath said, “Politics is not a full-time job for me. Ultimately, I am a Yogi (monk) at heart.”

Yogi’s reaction comes a day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the RSS headquarters in Maharashtra’s Nagpur on Sunday to “announce his retirement”. Raut also claimed that a ‘closed-door’ meeting happened to discuss PM Modi’s successor, adding that the next prime minister will be from Maharashtra.

Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis dismissed Raut’s claim and said that there was “no need to search” for PM Modi’s successor as he will continue to hold the top post again in 2029.

Regarding how long he plans to remain in politics, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, “There will be a time frame for this as well.”

Asked if his response meant that politics was not his permanent profession, Adityanath reiterated, “Yes, that is what I am saying.”

This is not the first time speculations around PM Modi’s retirement and succession. In May 2024, ahead of Lok Sabha elections, speculations were rife about PM Modi’s retirement upon turning 75 in September 2025. However, several key BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, dismissed the claims.

The BJP lost the majority in Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014 in the 2024 general elections.

Who will succeed Modi?

Apart from Yogi Adityanath, who has been the chief minister of UP since 2017, Union Home Ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari are also seen as Modi’s successors.

Gadkari, however, has said many times that he does not aspire to become the prime minister of India. Gadkari, the minister of Road Transport and Highways in PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet, said that no one in the saffron party would ask him to take the top job in the future.

In an interview with the London-based weekly,The Economist, in December last year, Gadkari was referred to as one of the most popular cabinet ministers in the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and ‘one of the candidates to succeed Modi.’

The Economist wrote that Modi’s position was not immediately under threat and that opinion polls suggest that Home Minister Amit Shah is the frontrunner. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is in second place, followed by Gadkari. “But Mr Modi’s successor will be decided by the upper ranks of the BJP and the RSS, not by opinion polls,” the piece reads. TheRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

What PM Modi said on his successor?

In one of the election rallies last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismissed allegations from opposition leaders suggesting that he has anointed Amit Shah as his successor, asserting that no such arrangement has been made.

“I do not have any inheritance of my own, you are my inheritance and you are also my heir,” said PM Modi during his address in Bihar’s Maharajganj.

Modi’s remarks come after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal alleged that PM Modi, who turns 75 in 2025, has appointed Home Minister Amit Shah as his successor.