"Akhilesh has definitely become a phenomenon. The perception of the party as being a party of goons has definitely changed."

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - It was supposed to be the crowning moment for Rahul Gandhi, the heir-apparent in India's ruling Congress party, but he was thrashed in this week's state election results and another young man thrust into the spotlight.

Akhilesh Yadav has won national acclaim by helping return his father to power as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and politically key state where Gandhi had hoped to stage a revival for Congress as it prepares to contest national elections in 2014.

Both men had taken charge of the campaigns to the Uttar Pradesh state legislature -- Gandhi for Congress and Yadav for his Samajwadi (Socialist) Party.

A relative unknown outside his state until recently, Yadav proved a canny operator and an effective grassroots campaigner, travelling hundreds of kilometres around Uttar Pradesh on a bicycle.

It was a smart move, since the bicycle was the Samajwadi election symbol.

Samajwadi ended up with 224 out of the state's 403 seats, enabling it to form the state government without any need for a coalition. Despite an energetic campaign that saw him sleep in the huts of villagers and join farmers' protests, Gandhi and the Congress party got just 28 seats.

"Akhilesh Yadav queered Rahul Gandhi's pitch, by projecting a youthful modernist face, but with the added advantages of being seemingly rooted in local social circumstance," wrote analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express. "He talked the language of aspiration." Both Yadav and Gandhi had projected themselves as agents of change, but on Wednesday it was Yadav's face that was splashed all over the front pages, feted for doing what Gandhi tried and failed to do.

Both men have been educated overseas -Gandhi in Britain and the United States and Yadav in Australia -- but Yadav managed to maintain a distinct "man of the masses" image that went down well in the largely rural state.

He also managed to change his party's image of being peopled by strongmen and thugs.

In one landmark decision, Yadav insisted that an alleged criminal be refused a party ticket to contest the election, reportedly against the wishes of some party stalwarts. The young man's view prevailed. "People don't want old style politics and this is something that Akhilesh understands, which his father Mulayam Singh didn't," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.

"Akhilesh is more in sync with the new