2014: Akhilesh needs to play on front foot

Analogy between cricket and political career of Yadav, youth icon of ruling SP, not without reason

Even before the party mood of ushering in 2014 could evaporate, Akhilesh Yadav, the youngest ever and incumbent chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, needs to pad up, walk the field and play on the front foot.

The analogy between cricket and the political career of Yadav, the youth icon of ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), is not without reason.

2013 was a year when he remained on the back foot, thanks to the string of controversies through the year that gave rise to questions on his administrative ability.

The reentry of mafioso-turned politician Atiq Ahmad in SP, who is the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Sultanpur, and the unceremonious removal of young IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal also sullied the otherwise clean image of Yadav.

From the deteriorating law and order situation in UP to the communal riots of Muzaffarnagar that claimed several lives and displaced thousands, 2013 stands testimony to the spate of murders, kidnappings and road blocks all over the state.

Ever since Yadav took over as CM on March 15, 2012, the perception of him not being in control has only grown stronger. The prime ministerial ambitions of his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh have not helped either.

Since Mulayam divides time between New Delhi and Lucknow, Akhilesh has the onerous task of administering the country’s largest state by population.

Most party colleagues are much senior in age and experience, both legislative and political, including his uncles and senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan. Humouring them, while energising the youth brigade of SP that helped the party coast to victory in 2012, continues to be a tedious task for him.

With the Lok Sabha poll fast approaching, Akhilesh faces the challenge of countering the growing appeal of Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is leaving no stone unturned to replicate its post-Ram temple movement success in UP.

To make matters worse, the success of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi is posing a new challenge to SP. Not to forget the formidable Bahujan Samaj Party, seeking to avenge the assembly poll defeat in the coming general election.

The government, which could barely manage to fulfill its free laptop scheme, has failed to inspire confidence among investors in the UP growth story.

Most of the flagship projects in UP have failed to find bidders, although 2013 rounded off with the investment arm of HCL Technologies agreeing to develop the proposed IT City in Lucknow. The IT City entails an investment of Rs 1,500 crore over 10 years.

The political landscape is witnessing a tectonic shift with AAP gaining currency among both the urban middle class and the poor. Nepotism, corruption, appeasement and favouritism will only drive voters further away. Akhilesh Yadav must be wiser to wake up to this new reality.

Smarting over the apparent failure of his government in providing relief to the Muzaffarnagar riot victims, Yadav uncharacteristically lost cool when a TV journalist tried to raise the issue in a recent press conference here.

All said and done, Akhilesh Yadav, the 33rd CM of UP, has the make-or-break chance in 2014. A success in the Lok Sabha poll would entrench him as a meritorious successor to Mulayam.