NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh—"Uttar Pradesh needs a Balasaheb Thackeray," Amit Jani said last week, as he ladled porridge into a bowl. "That is my answer in one line."

It was at the end of his third conversation with HuffPost India that Jani summed up why he was determined to spend crores of his own money to help elect to the Lok Sabha three men who have been accused of violent hate crimes against Muslims in the past few years.

For the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Jani's Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena, a radical Hindutva outfit based in Meerut, is fielding Shambu Lal Raigar, who hacked a Muslim man to death in December 2017, Hariom Sisodia, one of the 17 accused in the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in September 2015, and Naresh Kumar Sehrawat, accused of stabbing 16-year-old Junaid Khan in June 2017.

The chief of the UP Navnirman Sena explained that he wanted to nurture a new generation of "Hindutva warriors" to fight Islam and that he wanted to be a godfather-like figure to them.

The very existence of Jani's front, and the men he has chosen to represent it, offer a worrying glimpse into the rapid and unapologetic Hindu-radicalisation of India's public discourse and electoral processes in the four years since Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janta Party swept to power.

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"In Mumbai, the Marathi manoos and Hindu Shiv Sainik would do anything for Balasaheb because they knew he was there to protect them," he said. "The position for a Balasaheb Thackeray in UP is open but the frame is too big right now. After our candidates become lawmakers, then, in four to five years, a photo can fit the frame."

When asked if it would be his photo in the frame, Jani just smiled and scooped up his porridge.

The position for a Balasaheb Thackeray in UP is open.

Who is Amit Jani?

A wealthy businessman with two children, Jani says that he dropped his surname, Agrawal, because he believes in a casteless society. Jani, he says, is the name of his ancestral village in Meerut. His grandfather and father were tobacco traders, but Jani made his money from a string of businesses including a chain of hotels.

The 36-year-old, who has been in and out of jail since he was 17, is most recently out on bail after he was arrested last year for posting computer-generated photos of the Taj Mahal with saffron flags on top. His followers, he said, recited the "Shiva Chalisa" within the premises of the 17th-century mausoleum.

The first time he was jailed, says Jani, was for waving black flags at then UP power minister, Naresh Agrawal, over rising electricity bills. "I went into jail a boy and came out a man," he said, relating tales of being tortured and beaten while in custody.

In 2009, two years before he joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) as a youth leader, Jani was arrested for vandalizing a statue of Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in Lucknow. He formed the UP Navnirman Sena in 2010, but it was only last year that Jani found his calling—"aggressive Hindutva".

A huge fan of Bigg Boss, Jani was on his way to participate in the eleventh season of the reality show when the tyre of his car came off en route to the airport. A horrific accident ensued, and Jani was on a ventilator for 10 days, had nine surgeries for eight fractures, and had to watch the show from his hospital bed.

"If it wasn't for that accident, I may have been with Shivpal Yadav's Secular Morcha but after the accident, I did not want to do anything but Hindutva," said Jani. "I thought I was going to die. So did the others. It was a miracle and I have come to believe that God saved me so that I could save Hindutva."

If it wasn't for that accident, I may have been with Shivpal Yadav's Secular Morcha but after the accident, I did not want to do anything but Hindutva.

Jani also met Salman Khan, the host of Bigg Boss, when the actor visited Saifai, the native village of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. He got an invitation to participate in the twelfth season of the show, but decided against it.

"I cannot take off for a day, forget a couple of months. If I go, then my mission will stop," he said. "I want to put my life and soul into campaigning."

This year, he has decided to field six candidates, five in Uttar Pradesh and one in Haryana, in order to marry his brand of "aggressive" Hindutva with politics. To this end, Jani is willing to spend at least Rs 12-13 crore of his own money on campaigning. He believes that even one candidate winning will make "aggressive Hindutva" a legitimate prospect for the "lakhs" disillusioned with BJP.

"The BJP has done nothing but lip service to Hindutva and people are angry. The BJP says Hindutva for politics. We do politics for Hindutva," Jani said. "This is the shudh desi ghee of Hindutva. You don't get it in the BJP shop."

Jani also repeated the false narrative of a rapidly expanding Muslim population, popularized by the Hindu right. "I'm looking out for my son. He is ten years old right and his classmates are Vaibhav, Akshay and Sandeep, but 10 years from now, it will be Rizwan, Farhaan and Junaid," he said.

This is the shudh desi ghee of Hindutva. You don't get it in the BJP shop.

READ: Three Years After Dadri, The Man Accused Of Lynching Mohammad Akhlaq Is Free And Running For Lok Sabha

Everyone's creation

Badri Narayan Tiwari, a professor at the Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad, believes Jani's relevance extends as far as he can cut BJP votes.

"They will have appeal with those who have a hardcore Hindutva sentiment, but no mass appeal," he said. "They are fringe elements—the RSS wants nothing to do with them, the BJP wants nothing to do with them, so they are feeling the need to mobilize, to find their own space."

Sudha Pai, a political science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that BJP's Hindutva politics had spawned groups which had assumed a life of their own.

"The BJP may steer clear of such groups but they gave them the license to exist, but it's like riding a tiger that cannot be controlled," she said. "We don't always read or hear about such groups, but they do exist and they cause damage."

Not just the BJP, other political parties have also contributed in creating a space for Jani, says Pai, a consequence, she believes, of poor law and order in Uttar Pradesh. In addition to BJP's Hindutva politics, Pai says the SP is to blame for the culture of violence and impunity that has come to define the state. The Congress, too, has failed to counter the BJP narrative of Hindutva.

"The BJP has succeeded in making UP worse than Gujarat, which is now the experimental ground of Hindutva," she said. "Why does the Yogi Adityanath government not rein in these fringe elements? He can do it easily. But all parties, especially the SP and its goons, have a part in the appalling law and order that exists in UP today."

The BJP may steer clear of such groups but they gave them the license to exist, but it's like riding a tiger that cannot be controlled.

READ: Man Accused Of Murdering Junaid Khan To Contest 2019 Lok Sabha Election