His camp’s equation: Akhilesh is Mulayam plus

AKHILESH YADAV’S supporters in the Samajwadi Party say there is going to be a sea change in the party’s politics under him.theyexpecthimtomovebeyondthe Yadav-muslim combine that has been the SP’S mainstay, and further distance it from its image of a party of goons. They give the example of how the Chief Minister changed the party’s line on computers and English, how he is himself available on Twitter and Facebook and uses the social media to communicate, and how he has launched projects like the Women Powerline, where women can complain about crank calls, and Dial 100, an emergency police response system based in Lucknow, dispelling the notion of running a government soft on crime.

The supporters also cite the positive message the young CM has sent out by keeping wife and MP Dimple Yadav by his side at many public functions. In a misogynistic state like Uttar Pradesh, and in a family where women have earlier held public office but none has had a public presence, that means a lot.

Sources close to Akhilesh also say that with uncle Shivpal Yadav and controversial party MP Amar Singh seeking to have their say before what will be his first poll outing as CM, it was now or never for him — even though they insist the showdown was not planned.

“Akhilesh becoming party president is the end of the SP being associated with casteism, regionalism and sheltering goons,” says Sunil Kumar Yadav, MLC. “Today, Akhilesh is being compared with Prime Minister Modi. The comparison of a CM with the PM itself says a lot about the person and his work.”

Satyavir Singh Yadav, a retired Army colonel associated with the SP since early 2000 and the president of the party’s exservicemen cell, talks about Akhilesh’s first appointment after becoming party president. “He picked Naresh Uttam as state chief. He could have chosen Dharmendra Yadav (Akhilesh’s cousin), but he chose Uttam, who comes from a different caste and a different region than