Shivpal missing from CM video

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s first campaign video, launched on Wednesday night through a post on Facebook, narrates the work done by his government and features the top brass and prominent leaders of Samajwadi Party. Call it an overlook or relegate it to the current crisis ailing the ruling party, but the CM’s uncle, Shivpal Yadav, does not feature anywhere in the three-minute film, titled ‘Kaam Bolta Hai

The campaign video offers a quick guide of a slew of projects undertaken by the state government

(Work Speaks)’. The video offers a quick guide, through pictures, of a slew of projects undertaken by the state government during Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure, and adorns them with a song whose lyrics praise the CM and recount his achievements – ‘cycle ko lagey pankh vikas ke’; ‘Akhilesh ke har aarambh ka anjaam bolta hai’.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, cabinet ministers Azam Khan and Ahmad Hasan and other senior leaders make an appearance, but not Mr Shivpal Yadav, the second most powerful minister with over a dozen portfolios until his sacking from the cabinet on Sunday.

Mr Shivpal Yadav is also missing from the posters put up by various leaders in Lucknow, wishing people on Diwali. They carry pictures of the CM and his wife, Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav.

Sources said Mr Shivpal Yadav would also not figure in the memorabilia designed for the CM’s ‘vijay se vikas yatra’, which begins from Lucknow on November 3. “The chief minister’s rath yatra is not a party’s campaign. When the SP launches its campaign with rallies, Mr Shivpal Yadav will figure in the posters since he is the party’s state president,” said a close aide of the CM on condition of anonymity.