Lucknow: While several parties had a pantheon of star campaigners, Akhilesh Yadav was virtually the lone face of the Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh elections. From distributing tickets to choosing allies, it was the SP president's one-man show.
At 48, he is a year younger than Yogi Adityanath, the UP Chief Minister and the man he had hoped to send back to Gorakhpur. With BJP on the way to form the government for the second consecutive term, and Yogi Adityanath himself securing over one lakh votes, Akhilesh's plan did not work out and his party trailed behind the BJP.
Born in Saifai on July 1, 1973, Yadav entered politics in 2000, winning a Lok Sabha bypoll from Kannauj, and is now the MP from Azamgarh. This is his first Assembly election and he picked Karhal for it, which is a segment in his father's Mainpuri parliamentary constituency. After burning his fingers by partnering with Congress in 2017 UP polls, this time SP president chose to enter into an alliance with a string of small parties.
It looked like he had outsmarted BJP when he inducted ministers Swami Pradesh Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini into his party. However, there are a few reasons why his plan did not work out.
Yadav studied at the Military School in Dholpur, Rajasthan and then got his bachelor's and master's degrees in Civil Environmental engineering from JSS Science and Technology University. He also has a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia. He is married to Dimple Yadav, Yadav has two daughters and a son.
In 2012, after a stint as the president of SP's youth wing and then the party's UP president, he became the state's youngest ever CM at 38, with his father's blessings. In the early years of his term as the SP unit chief and the CM, he struggled with his father's legacy, tackling politicians like DP Yadav, Amar Singh and Azam Khan. His uncle Shivpal Yadav brought in mafia don Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal into the SP, against his will. Another uncle Ram Gopal Yadav remained on his side as Akhilesh Yadav tackled dissension in the party and the Yadav clan.
Just ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, Yadav staged a coup of sorts. At an emergency convention of the party in January 2017, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was ousted as national president and relegated to the post of its patron. The BJP called Akhilesh Yadav Aurangzeb, recalling what one Mughal emperor did to his own father. Both sides approached the Election Commission, which ruled in the younger Yadav's favour, giving his faction the bicycle symbol.
In the 2022 elections, Akhilesh Yadav joined hands again with uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. In the past, Yadav has tried an image makeover for the SP. When he was the CM, he junked his SP's declared opposition towards computers, announcing what is sometimes claimed to be the world's biggest laptop distribution scheme for students. His government also took credit for launching development projects like the Agra-Lucknow expressway, a metro rail, an international stadium and a cancer hospital in Lucknow.
Yadav went to 2022 polls with the slogan "Nayi hawa Hai, Nayi sapna Hai" to ward off attacks on the party's previous record on law and order. He referred to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to challenge the perception that the BJP government has tackled crime better. He also distanced himself from 'Bahubalis' (muscleman-politician) like Raja Bhaiya popularly called 'Kunda ka Goonda' and Mukhtar Ansari, who is said to be close to the party during Mulayam Singh Yadav's time.
Though the party under Akhilesh Yadav couldn't perform the miracle Samajwadi Party's patriarch would have, he is leading with a comfortable margin in the Karhal constituency, which is considered the SP bastion, Yadav has secured 48,379 votes so far while his nearest rival Union Minister SP Singh Baghel bagged 19,243 votes.
READ: Adityanath creates history, wins Gorakhpur seat with over one lakh votes
