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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 ‘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?
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.
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.
Eyes on the polls, Mulayam's 'Mann se Mulayam' slogan has been sidelined for Akhilesh’s new slogan – 'Kaam bolta hai'.
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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