Lucknow, March 15
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav, who began his fourth year in office on Sunday, appears
to have walked out of the overpowering shadow of his father and
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Officials say the
41-year-old chief minister is now in command of the country's most
populous state -- and its very many issues of governance -- more than
ever before.
The government certainly seems to have made
infrastructure -- badly needed in the sprawling state -- the centre of
its priorities.
The Lucknow Metro Rail, the Agra-Lucknow
Expressway and new power sub-stations figure in the success story as the
government embarks on a development path.
An international cricket stadium has also come up, and so has an IT City.
But
not everything is a success story. Issues such as the government's
growing debt, a grim power scenario and deteriorating law and order
could still do Akhilesh Yadav in.
It was on March 15, 2012 that
Akhilesh Yadav became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, after the
Samajwadi Party winning a whopping 224 of the 403 assembly seats.
But
the going was not smooth. There were small and big communal clashes.
The worst of it happened in August-September 2013 when communal violence
in Muzaffarnagar district left over 60 dead and thousands homeless.
That
had a major effect on the Lok Sabha election of May 2014. With Muslims,
otherwise dedicated to the Samajwadi Party, angry, the party bit the
dust.
It won only five of the state's 80 seats, a humiliating
show for a ruling party. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a record
71 seats. Two seats went to a BJP ally and two to the Congress.
But
the tide again turned within months, with the Samajwadi Party winning
eight of the 11 assembly seats that saw by-elections, mainly to fill the
seats vacated by BJP legislators who had become MPs.
The opposition is, of course, is unsparing of the Akhilesh Yadav government.
Akhilesh
Yadav's rule would be remembered for being in "denial mode, utter
confusion and directionless", BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told
IANS.
He added that many welfare schemes had been unceremoniously shut down.
Congress
leader Pradip Mathur was more generous, saying "there has been some
forward movement (in governance) and serious efforts had been made by
the government" to bring the state out of the woods.
Samajwadi
Party spokesman and cabinet minister Rajendra Chowdhary, however,
credits Akhilesh Yadav for "ushering in an era of serious and
sustainable development".
Interestingly, one of the most vocal --
although occasional -- critics of the government is Mulayam Singh
Yadav, who has more than once pulled up the chief minister.
"I
know what's going on in this government," the senior Yadav once said.
"People in power are taking commissions... Always remember that the
people never forgive all this."
