Samajwadi Party's Aparna Yadav Meets Yogi Adityanath Again, Says 'He Is Everyone's Chief Minister'

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit to a cow shelter in Lucknow run by his predecessor Akhilesh Yadav's step-brother Prateek and his wife Aparna Yadav was watched with much interest on Friday. The Chief Minister walked around the 64-acre shelter and fed cows, with both Prateek and Aparna by his side.

The visit sparked new speculation about whether Aparna Yadav, 26, is growing closer to the BJP, with the Samajwadi Party in the firm grip of Akhilesh Yadav, who wrested control just before the elections from his father and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Prateek, Mulayam Singh's younger son is not a politician, but his wife Aparna contested the UP assembly elections as a Samajwadi Party candidate from a Lucknow seat and lost to the BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi. Prateek and Aparna were seen aligned against Akhilesh in the feud that has raged for months in the Samajwadi's Party's first family.

Aparna Yadav dismissed such speculation telling NDTV that Yogi Adityanath visited the cow shelter on her invitation as Chief Minister. "He is everyone's CM and Yogi Adityanath too runs cow shelters in his Gorakhpur, so we requested him to visit ours and give us some tips on how to improve it," she said, also pointing out that Akhilesh Yadav too had visited the shelter as Chief Minister.

Both Yogi Adityanath and Aparna Yadav belong to Pauri in Uttarakand. Days after the BJP snatched UP from the Samajwadi Party with a gigantic win in the assembly elections this month, Aparna and Prateek had called on Yogi Adityanath to congratulate him on becoming Chief Minister, carrying bouquets of roses.

Ms Yadav is an ambitious social activist who worked hard in the constituency she contested in her debut election but was swept away by the BJP wave. She has made no effort to hide her admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mulayam SinghYadav's chhoti bahu or younger daughter-in-law, has been spotted at events that the PM has addressed in UP and caused a flutter last year when she clicked a selfie with PM Modi at a family function that he attended in Lucknow.

"He is everyone's PM," she had said then.

Prateek Yadav, 28, Mulayam Singh's son from his second wife, on Friday underscored his disinterest in politic, preferring to detail the work they do at the cow shelter. A businessman who runs a real estate empire and high-end gym, Mr Yadav was in the news during the UP election campaign for being seen in a 4-crore Lamborghini.