At the age of 26, Adityanath was the 12th Lok Sabha’s youngest member. He was elected to the Gorakhpur Legislative Assembly for five consecutive years (in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014 elections). In the 16th Lok Sabha, Adityanath had a 77 percent attendance rate, and he submitted 284 questions, participated in 56 debates, and introduced three private member Bills.
For more than a decade, Adityanath has had tense relations with the BJP. He frequently mocked and criticized the BJP, attacking its diluted Hindutva philosophy. Having created his independent power base in Eastern Uttar Pradesh with the assistance 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 his voice was not being heard, he rebelled by nominating candidates against the official BJP candidates.
Adityanath was one among numerous BJP MPs who disobeyed the leadership of the party on the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament in March 2010. In the 2018 Rajasthan state assembly election, he campaigned for BJP candidate Pratap Puriji Maharaj.