“This is Sparta”, reads the Facebook post. Prateek Yadav could’ve been talking about the Yadav family dispute, but he’s just launched a state-of-the art exercise studio ‘Sparta’ in Lucknow.
Prateek is Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger son from his second marriage to Sadhana Gupta. A body builder of some repute, Prateek on the face of it does not harbour his father’s political ambitions, but does share his passion for body building. The Samajwadi Party chief was a district champion in the lightweight wrestling championship and did not shy away from the akhada even after he joined politics.
At 11, Prateek contracted pneumonia while studying in Dehradun. A steroid injection made his weight shoot up to 103 kgs. “My father inspired me to adopt a healthy lifestyle”, he says.
At 23, Prateek married his long-time sweetheart Aparna Bisht in a lavish ceremony attended by Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan as well as Anil Ambani. The couple have a three-year-old daughter.
At 28, the University of Leeds graduate is managing the family’s massive land holdings and plans to develop them into residential, commercial and industrial complexes. Apart from the real estate business, he’s looking to expand his Lucknow gym into a chain of 25 in the next five years.
Prateek may seem far removed from the ongoing family dispute in the Samajwadi Party, but that wasn’t always the case.
In November 2012, a group of Samajwadi Party workers swarmed the party office in Lucknow demanding Prateek be given a ticket to contest from Azamgarh for the 2014 general election. His mother Sadhana Gupta pushed for a ticket, as did his uncle Shivpal Yadav.
But the SP patriarch was circumspect. He did not want to fuel any sibling rivalry and settled the matter by contesting from both Azamgarh and Mainpuri himself.
Just eight months earlier, Akhilesh had delivered UP after a hard-fought election campaign that saw the party sweep the 403-member assembly with 224 seats. He took oath as Chief Minister, the youngest ever. Mulayam’s older brother Shivpal Yadav had questioned the haste, but was overruled.
Four years on, in September this year, Mulayam would regret not listening to Shivpal.
Addressing a group of unruly party men in September, the SP Chief recalled, “In 2012, Shivpal was of the opinion that I should become chief minister for the fourth time and Akhilesh should be crowned only after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Akhilesh has been miffed with Shivpal ever since”.
The statement was aimed at settling the unruly assembly of youth wing workers and leaders who are rattled by the family dispute blowing up just months before the SP seeks a re-election.
The emotional outbursts at today’s legislature meeting in Lucknow have done little to placate party workers. But what’s certain is that Prateek is at the centre of the discord between chacha-bhatija.
Sadhana Gupta’s political ambitions for her son have been repeatedly dashed. But with Mulayam agreeing to allow his choti bahu Aparna to contest the upcoming assembly election, there is another sun rising in the Samajwadi Party.
And no star was ever born without an explosion.
(Sources: Economic Times, India TV)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)