Their contrasting, yet complementing, campaign styles have turned Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav into Uttar Pradesh’s power couple. A victory in UP would make them a decisive force in national politics as well.
It is morning in Lucknow. There is a slight dip in mercury, but the airport at Amausi is feeling the heat. Guarding every inch of the area are commandos of the Special Protection Group and the National Security Guard. On the tarmac are three Air Force choppers and a white chartered plane.
All are waiting for the arrival of two heavyweight political leaders. It is from here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will fly into election rallies in hinterlands. Their destinations are different, but their aim is one: win the assembly elections in the country’s most populous and electorally significant state.
Akhilesh arrives on the dot at 11. Clad in spotless white kurta-pyjama, black Nehru jacket and black Mobils shoes, he boards the plane, but not before greeting the pilots and the people waiting to board the flight with him. He tells the pilots: “Fly quickly. I am already late by half an hour. In the evening I have to address two meetings in Lucknow. After that, there are interviews lined up.”
The Akhilesh of today is a far cry from the one he had been weeks earlier. Back then, he was embroiled in a bitter family feud that pitted him against Mulayam Singh Yadav, his father and founder president of the Samajwadi Party. The support of the majority of SP legislators and some political manoeuvres, however, helped him seize the reins of the party from Mulayam.
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