Spare a thought for Akhilesh Yadav to the Chief Minister of state where Lord Ram and Lord Krishna were born. Of course, it is a huge honour for him. At 38, Akhilesh Yadav is becoming the youngest chief minister of India's most populous state. Mayawati was 39, when she assumed the office as UP's 24th chief minister in 1995.
Thus, he is taking over the mantel of Uttar Pradesh which was earlier lucky enough to have seen the giants of Govind Ballabh Pant, Sucheta Kripalani, Dr. Sampoornanand, Kamlapati Tripathi, CB Gupta, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguina, ND Tiwari,VP Singh and others as Chief Ministers.
Admittedly, young Akhilesh’s task cut out to take Uttar Pradesh to next level in the field of economic development and many other key areas so far neglected by the previous governments in the state. The state is in total disarray. There is a huge power shortage, industries feel several times to invest there, the law and order situation is a big issue. There are several challenges and hurdles before Akhilesh to conquer. The task is onerous and not at all easy.
However, the good thing about Akhilesh is that he seems to be very humble and knows pretty well that aggression won’t help his cause. In my recent interview, I found him very suave and he keeps no grudges against anybody. He did not utter a word against Amar Singh or his political rivals from Mayawati to Rahul Gandhi. This is the hallmark of his personality.
While he got the top post, Akhilesh Yadav was not keen for that when he was campaigning vigorously. He made it clear that Mulayam Singh Yadav to be the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Confidence personified, Akhilesh was fully convinced that his party would storm the citadels of others parties in the state and retain their own bastions. He proved right.
Honestly, it was very refreshing that he did not make any below the belt comment against his ‘sworn enemy’ Mayawati during the campaign. As that was not enough, Akhilesh Yadav said, “ They would not dismantle parks built by Mayawati.”
Let’s hope that an engineer by training, Akhilesh Yadav will woo industry to invest in his state and also work tirelessly for the cause of peasants, women and weaker section of the society without any bias.