Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party has stormed back into power with a stunning win in Uttar Pradesh capturing 224 seats. All eyes are now on Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh Yadav, the young leader who turned the party's fortunes around. It remains to be seen whether Mulayam's son will be the next Chief Minister.
Akhilesh broke all rules to connect with the masses, whether through interviews while cycling or while explaining to his supporters about the weaknesses of his rival.
The wheel has turned a full circle for the engineer turned politician Akhilesh Yadav. In 2009, he had to face the embarrassment of seeing his own wife lose the Lok Sabha poll, that too in the Yadav stronghold. Three years after that, he is being heralded by pollsters as the next big thing in UP's political scenario.
But it hasn't been easy to emerge out of the shadow of his illustrious father. As he went about building a new age Samajwadi Party, he used every trick in the book, social networking websites, over 12,000 kms of travel by rath, 250 rallies, cycle yatras with the sole agenda of winning hearts and minds of the 30 per cent young voters of the state.
It was Akhilesh, who was responsible for the ouster of Amar Singh from the Samajwadi Party. It was he who convinced his father, course correction was imperative and possible. Apologies were offered through the campaign trail for tying up with Babri demolisher Kalyan Singh in 2009.
The question now is whether Akhilesh can be the Nitish Kumar of UP. This is a daunting prospect indeed, a prospect that is bound to test the mettle of the 39-year old leader.
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