In UP, it's a battle of Akhilesh Yadavs

PTI

Lucknow, February 28

What’s in a name, you ask? Everything, it turns out. Ask three of Akhilesh Yadav’s namesakes, and they’ll tell you how sharing the Samajwadi Party chief’s name helped them in their election fight.

“I'm getting good support in my constituency,” says Akhilesh Yadav, who, ironically, is an SP candidate from Mubarakpur who lost the segment to rivals Bahujan Samaj Party’s Shah Alam in the 2017 elections by 688 votes. “People feel sympathetic towards me. I'd lost the 2017 polls by a very thin margin. But now, they want Akhilesh Yadav to win. People say as (SP chief) Akhilesh Yadav will be chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav should also be Mubarakpur’s MLA.”

When his name was announced as the candidate from Mubarakpur, rumours spread that the SP chief would fight from two segments.  That is, until the record was set right.

The SP chief meanwhile decided to fight from Karhal, which comes under Mainpuri Lok Sabha segment—his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s stronghold. Karhal voted in the third of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections seven-phase elections.

Mubarakpur meanwhile comes under Azamgarh. It votes in the last phase—Phase 7—of the assembly polls on March 7. 

Incidentally, the SP president is a Lok Sabha member from Azamgarh.  

Confusion confounded  

Sometimes, sharing the SP president’s name could lead to people cheering for you, even if it’s by accident. Ask Akhilesh Yadav, the Congress candidate from Bikapur. Yadav is his party’s Ayodhya district president, but what’s even more interesting is the fact that until 2016, he was also a member of the Samajwadi Party.

“A few days back, I was campaigning with my supporters in Bikapur,” says Bikapur’s Congress candidate. “One of my supporters shouted ‘Akhilesh bhaiyya zindabaad’. This prompted some SP supporters, who were in the vicinity to raise slogans in my support,” he laughs. “Later, they realised that they are actually raising slogans in favour of a Congress candidate.”

Then there’s there are amusing stories of how people get puzzled at seeing ‘haath kaa panjaa’ (the Congress hand symbol) against his name.

The third Akhilesh in the fray is Lakhvendra Singh alias Akhilesh Yadav, an independent from Gunnaur. Singh is testing political waters as an independent candidate this time. His segment, Gannaur in Sambhal district, has already voted.

Born as Lakhvendra Singh in 1983, his grandmother lovingly called him “Akhilesh” and the name stuck, and eventually, he began going by that name, even submitting his nomination as “Akhilesh Yadav” this time.

Interestingly, his rival in Gannaur is his father Ram Khilari Singh, a candidate of the Samajwadi Party.

 “Akhilesh Yadav (the SP chief) is everything for us,” he says in praise of his namesake. “Samajwad (socialism) flows in our blood and it is in our genes.”

Why, despite fighting as an independent, does he remain loyal to the Samajwadi Party?

 “I’m a dummy candidate for my father Ramkhiladi Singh, who has been made the Samajwadi Party candidate from Gunnaur.”

When results are declared on March 10 it would be interesting to see how many of the Akhilesh Yadavs win. But if they all are lucky then the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly will face a “naam ka chakar” (confusion because of names).

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