Hindu firebrand Yogi Adityanath picked as Uttar Pradesh chief minister

India's governing party has chosen a controversial Hindu religious leader known for anti-Muslim rhetoric as the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state.
Yogi Adityanath, 44, has said minorities that oppose yoga should leave the country.
He once compared Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan to a Pakistani terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed, reports say.
Uttar Pradesh has a population of 200m people. About a fifth are Muslim.
The governing Bharatiya Janata Party's recent election win there is seen as a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Opposition MPs criticised the appointment, but BJP ministers defended it.
Venkaiah Naidu, minister for federal information and broadcasting, called it a "watershed moment in the history of the BJP".
"The mandate is for development, good governance and against caste politics."
The BJP won a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh



last week with the biggest majority there since 1980. Mr Modi personally led the campaign against regional rivals the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj party.
The rise of Hindu nationalists has triggered concern among India's religious minorities. The selection of the saffron-clad Mr Adityanath is likely to intensify their fears, BBC World Service South Asia editor Ethirajan Anbarasan says.
Manish Tewari, a senior Congress party leader tweeted that the BJP's decision to appoint Mr Adityanath was a "harbinger to greater polarisation".
Mr Adityanath has been elected as an MP five times and is head priest at a Hindu temple in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
He is a strong support of laws protecting cows, and opposes beef consumption.
He recently praised a travel ban ordered by US President Donald Trump blocking immigration from a group of Muslim-majority countries, saying India needed something similar.