New Delhi: In the father's shadow, a son rises. He inherited Samajwad, but unlike his wrestler father, Akhilesh jogs, plays football in the morning. Spends the nights on the Facebook. His day is planned by a computer savvy team. With a degree in engineering from Australia, he hops from a helicopter to a BMW cycle. But Samajwad demands that he wears a kurta and never speaks in English.
He admits that like Rahul Gandhi the famous surname helps. His father is party CEO and two uncles are top executives. But the task ahead is tougher. He replaces his uncle Shivpal as SP's UP chief when Congress is eating into the SP's core voter -- Muslims. The SP is down from 39 seats in 2004 to 23 seats in 2009.
"We will fight the Congress, which did better because of several reasons and rules Delhi, and BSP which rules UP," he says.
From his first day till date, Rahul gandhi makes headlines. But Akhilesh's entry and rise was silent. Now it will be a face-off in UP with Rahul Gandhi. The two will be compared.
SP sources say Akhilesh's promotion may force the Opposition to rethink. But the family still controls the party. If he works hard and the people accept him then only he can be the leader, says Mulayam.
A new son rises on UP's political horizon. Ajit Singh-Jayant Chowdhry, Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh-Akhilesh Yadav are all members of dynastic trade in UP. The silver lining perhaps is: They are younger and can change the way UP does politics.