For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.
But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.
The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".
Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.
Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.
When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.
"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.
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Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."
That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.
Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.
Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.
Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.
Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.
The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.
The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.
Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.
Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.
"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.
He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.
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