The Akhilesh Yadav show

With the first phase a fortnight away, the Akhilesh Yadav campaign is on a roll, ready to meet the Yogi-Modijuggernaut with its own brand of development-cum-Mandal politics wrapped in some spicy contemporary rhetoric.

- PRIYA SAHGAL

The Uttar Pradesh elections are fast turning into an Akhilesh Yadav show. His daily press conferences at 1 pm set the poll narrative, as he highlights a new issue each day, or welcomes a new defector from the BJP. The Bicycle Chief's trademark deadpan delivery as he scores a political point over his opponent is given away when he breaks into a mischievous smile immediately afterwards. Ensuring he has a captive audience, Akhilesh often breaks the presser to play his latest campaign song and then resumes the questions. There is some banter, there is also some calling out-if the questions seem a tad pro establishment. When a mainstream channel known for its pro BJP leanings published a poll survey showing the opposition in a poor light, Akhilesh quipped saying, "You should multiply the seats allotted by this channel to Asaduddin Owaisi by two to get the real estimate"; and when told about the estimate for SP he said, “multiply that number by three”! When the BJP poached his sister-in-law Aparna Yadav, he shrugged it off with a “she is propagating the Samajwadi Party culture in the BJP”. He has brought back fun into the very polarised and somewhat vicious politics of the Hindi heartland. There is also a confidence and a certain swag that was missing during the 2017 polls.