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On 15 March 2012, Akhilesh Yadav took over as the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. But he then spent the next two years in the shadow of his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and other senior party leaders.
The young leader was labelled ‘half CM’ as it started to look like the state was governed by four-and-a-half Chief Ministers. But during the winter of 2015, the relationships in the party began to strain, and come 2016, things had taken a turn.
The ‘half CM’ is now playing on the front foot. He has started to call the shots in the party and within his family. In the last few years, Akhilesh has outgrown the stature of his father, his uncle and his own party. But to what does he owe this change?
Akhilesh's Driving Force – His Team of Volunteers
A team of one lakh volunteers are campaigning in the rural parts of Uttar Pradesh for Akhilesh and the Samajwadi Party. Before the campaign started, a survey was conducted in September that had some interesting revelations.
In the survey, excluding Western UP, people were asked to give their opinion on Akhilesh and his government. The survey concluded that although Akhilesh is a good leader, he still needs to take advice from his father, Mulayam.
But shortly after the results of the survey were announced, Akhilesh’s volunteers started their campaign.
Another survey conducted in October made Akhilesh change his strategy. He is a CM with a clean image and between him and Mulayam, Akhilesh has become the popular choice for people.
Sources close to Akhilesh also say there has been a sudden change in the CM's strategy.
The same could be seen in Lucknow, when he took a stand and showed that he could take on the combined might of Mulayam and Shivpal. Even the C-voter poll suggests that Akhilesh is the popular choice.
Akhilesh and His Mission 2017
Eyes on the polls, Mulayam's 'Mann se Mulayam' slogan has been sidelined for Akhilesh’s new slogan – 'Kaam bolta hai'.
We wanted to campaign around the new slogan, but the fights within the family and the party slowed us down. Now, we are waiting for Akhilesh’s orders and for us, his orders hold more value than Mulayam’s.A Party Source
Akhilesh, in fact, can be seen walking in the same path as Narendra Modi.
Akhilesh’s strategy is quite understandable. It has all the ingredients of the 2014 election along with the mixed policies that proved to be the winning formula for Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi and Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu.
The UP election is now in its final round and whatever the result turns out to be, Akhilesh will come out victorious.
(Translated from Quint Hindi.)
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