Yadav vs Yadav: Youth icon who moved away from SP traditions

Akhilesh Yadav
He can be stubborn at times, and has very strong likes and dislikes

Akhilesh Yadav, 43, emerged as a youth icon when he was appointed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the age of 39. The eldest son of Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh did his schooling from the Dholpur Military School in Rajasthan and then did his graduation from Mysore. He obtained a degree in environmental engineering from Australia.

Akhilesh made his political debut by winning a Lok Sabha byelection from Kannauj in 2000. He led his party’s campaign in 2012 and when the party got a comfortable majority, he was appointed chief minister.

Akhilesh moved away from the traditional Samajwadi ideology when he announced that all students clearing their Class 12 examinations would be given laptops. Though the scheme was stalled after one year and the rules were tweaked to make it more selective, it helped him develop the image of a technology friendly and modern young politician.

In a state that had more than its share of ageing and archetypal netas, Akhilesh came across as a whiff of fresh air. Initially projected as a “helpless” young man who was not given a free hand to work by the elders in the family and the party, his rivals as well as supporters claimed that he was only half of the four-and-a-half chief ministers who were ruling UP.

In 2014, after the Samajwadi rout in the Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh began asserting himself. He started sacking ministers — even seniors like Ambica Chaudhary — stripping them of their portfolios and transferring officials with a vengeance.

Sources close to him admit that he can be stubborn at times and has very strong likes and dislikes — something that does not go well in Indian politics.

As he launched his dream projects that included the Lucknow-Agra Expressway and Lucknow me-tro, he also started building his own brand image.

Steve Jarding, a Harvad professor, was called in to develop Brand Akhilesh and the chief minister’s photo was suddenly visible on school bags and ration cards. Full page advertisements in newspapers, half-hour slots on TV channels were pushed to promote the chief minister.

Gradually, Mulayam Singh was being relegated to the wings and the party’s anthem was no longer “Man se hai Mulayam, Iraade loha hai” but a catchier “Kaam bolta hai, Akhilesh ka naam bolta hai”.

What Jarding did not realise, despite Modi’s example before him, was that politics in the Hindi heartland goes beyond publicity blitzkrieg and needs a personal and emotional connect.  

Akhilesh, despite his amiable nature, does not connect with the common people and his media interactions restricted to those who are pushed in by his favourite bunch of bureaucrats.

It is this that has kept him disconnected with ground realities and he does not realise that even his most ambitious schemes are being mishandled at the implementation level.

Akhilesh, however, has succeeded in cultivating the image of a family man. His three annual holidays with wife Dimple and children Aditi, Tina and Arjun are not hidden from prying eyes and he does not hesitate in taking his family on his political outings too—whether it is a cricket match in the IAS Week or the inauguration of the expressway.

As he plunges into the biggest crisis and challenge of his political career in 2017, it will take all his political skills to emerge a winner, especially since it is not just a political crisis but a family crisis too and involves his father.