Akhilesh Yadav scripts history by becoming UP's youngest Chief Minister

Akhilesh Yadav, the quintessential local lad, who was born here and has learnt his politics on the dusty kuchcha roads of the UP heartland, is the new UP Chief Minister. Here is look at the life of the man whose hard-work and dedication has reaped wonderful results for the party.

Akhilesh Yadav, 38, will be the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He will also be the youngest ever to hold that position. He was born on July 1, 1973 to Mulayam Singh Yadav and Malti Devi in Saifai of Etawah district in UP, their only son.

He has a Sainik school education - still considered in many parts of India as the most disciplined schooling that a young boy can get. He studied at the Sainik School in Dhaulpur, Rajasthan. Akhilesh then did his Bachelor of Engineering and Masters of Engineering in Civil Environment Engineering at the University of Mysore in Karnataka. Only then did he get his "foreign education" - a Masters degree in environmental engineering from the University of Sydney in Australia.

Akhilesh married Dimple in November 1999. Akhilesh seems to wear his heart on his sleeve when it comes to his winsome wife. He is variously quoted to have declared his love for her and has even said that "shaadi hote hi kismat khul gayi (got lucky as soon as I got married)."

Akhilesh and Dimple have three children - Aditi and twins, Arjun and Tina. His camera friendly little daughters made a debut on national television as family when the Yadavs celebrated their win.

He took over as the SP's UP president in June 2009. He had already been heading the party's youth wing for some time. His first task he had said then was to review his party's electoral setbacks to draw vital lessons and take corrective action.

Politics for long has meant leading youth of the party on a bicycle, his party's political symbol, door to door. Winning UP was hard work. Akhilesh traveled about 10,000 km and held 800 rallies in UP over the last six months.

A keen environmentalist, Akhilesh was contemplating taking up water pollution projects when his father drafted him into politics. He lists his profession on his official Lok Sabha bio data as Agriculturist, Engineer and Political and Social Worker.

Through his campaign he talked law and order as his party's foremost agenda and after the SP's win promised UP freedom from Goonda Raj. He had other challenges. Three years ago, before the 2009 General Elections, the SP had said it was against the use of English and the use of computers. By 2012, the SP manifesto was the first to promise laptops and tablets for students who completed school-leaving. The manifesto is forward-looking with an accent of education and Yadav Junior has promised it will be implemented in full.

Among the many changes the younger Yadav is credited with, is bringing in more young, educated professionals into his party, including the IIM-educated Abhishek Mishra who won from Lucknow-North seat and is already making waves.