TIPU, SULTAN!

In his first major election after the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh humbles the BJP and proves he is his own man

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN

Unlike his father, Akhilesh Yadav never fancied wrestling. Mulayam Singh Yadav had, in his youth, slammed many a man in dusty Etawah, but young Akhilesh was always drawn to the team sports of cricket and football.

This, perhaps, explains his penchant for finding partners to take the political field. After becoming party president in 2017, Akhilesh first teamed up with fellow dynast Rahul Gandhi, then the Congress president. The Hand on the Cycle would propel it faster in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh had promised. The wheels were swept away in a saffron wave and a monk replaced him as chief minister.

Two years later, he offered his pillion to his father’s foe, former chief minister Mayawati, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. No luck again.

Third time’s the charm, Akhilesh must have thought, before caste-ing a wider net in the run-up to the 2022 assembly elections. A rainbow coalition of smaller parties to take on the monochromatic BJP. Sadly for him, saffron stayed strong.

Not one to give up, he hopped on his bicycle once again in 2024 in the Lok Sabha polls to fight the BJP that had fulfilled its promise of building the Ram Mandir and also declared the election a foregone conclusion months before the elections.

This time, Akhilesh once again teamed up with the Congress, this time under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc. The aim was to block the BJP from reaching 272, and block it they did.

He promised atta and data, an end to question paper leaks and stressed that faith was a personal matter and not one to be broadcast during election campaigns. He also expanded the MY (Muslim-Yadav) formula of the Samajwadi Party to PDA—not public display of affection, but a sort of political one. PDA stood for pichhde (backward), dalit and alpsankhyak (minorities), who seem to have come through for the Yadav scion.