Akhilesh's image makeover attempt, a delayed exercise

Dateline

It took almost three and half years for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to make a serious attempt at an image makeover and to remove the perception that he was a weak CM and that there were multiple power centres in the state. Referring to the recent massive cabinet rejig undertaken by him to get rid of non-performing ministers and induct fresh and young faces, political observers wonder if the image makeover exercise has come a bit too late.

Akhilesh had last month sacked eight cabinet ministers, including some senior ones, and stripped nine others of their current portfolios. He later expanded his ministry and included a dozen new faces besides promoting nine others.

Almost immediately after he had assumed charge of the state following his party’s impressive victory in the 2012 assembly polls, he came under attack from his political rivals, who claimed that his government was being run by the “chachas’’ (uncles) and his father and Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

They obviously referred to Akhilesh’s uncles Shivpal Singh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav besides senior minister and firebrand Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan, who is addressed that way by him. Though Akhilesh had undertaken five cabinet reshuffles before the latest one, even his own party leaders maintained that he never had his way completely and was influenced by the recommendations from Mulayam and other senior leaders.

The reported helplessness of Akhilesh drew criticism from various quarters. His opponents said that he did not have any control over the state bureaucracy, which was remote-controlled by Mulayam and other senior party leaders and ministers.

The spate of communal riots witnessed in the state after the formation of Akhilesh Yadav’s government, the rising incidents of crime against the women and the recent lynching of a Muslim youth at Bisada village in Greater Noida had put the state government in a spot and led to widespread criticism of the chief minister.

Even Mulayam lambasted his son’s government on several occasions and asked Akhilesh to take action against the inefficient bureaucrats and non-performing ministers. Mulayam’s criticism only led to more attacks on Akhilesh from the opposition parties.

Their criticism stemmed from the fact that Akhilesh, during his formative years in politics, had learnt from these senior SP leaders, including his uncles. The SP leaders, however, revealed that Akhilesh had been yearning to remove this perception. And the sixth cabinet reshuffle almost completely bore his stamp of authority. He not only removed many ministers who were considered loyal to Mulayam, Shivpal and some other senior party leaders, but also clipped the wings of several old guards for non-performance.

Akhilesh reduced the influential independent legislator Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya to a virtual non-entity by allocating him the insignificant stamp and registration department after stripping him of the important food and civil supplies ministry. Sacking of senior ministers like Ambika Chaudhary, Narad Rai, Shivakant Ojha and Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh and reduction in the status of Ahmed Hasan, Mehboob Ali and Awadhesh Prasad, according to the observers, clearly showed that Akhilesh had finally emerged out of the shadow of the ‘uncles’.

“Akhilesh, who will be leading the party in the next assembly polls, has formed his team and is ready to take on his political rivals,” said a senior SP leader speaking to Deccan Herald. The latest cabinet reshuffle also clearly took care of the caste equations besides making an attempt to preserve and consolidate SP’s Muslim vote bank. Addition of one Muslim minister and promotion of four others were pointers to this effect.

Backward caste votes

The inclusion of Banshidhar Baudh, Pappu Nishad, Sudhir Kumar Rawat, Sahib Singh Saini and Ram Sakal Gujjar in the ministry was clearly aimed at an attempt to make a dent into the backward caste votes. In a sh-rewd political move, Akhilesh showed preference to the backward caste leaders from western region of the state, which indicated that the SP would now focus on the region to counter the growing influence of the BJP.

Incidentally, Ram Sakal Gujjar and Sahib Singh Saini, who were promoted in the rejig, came from the western region. Akhilesh inducted a Muslim, Shadab Fatima, while promoting another, Kamal Akhtar, in a bid to woo the community. Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey, the SP MLA from Ayodhya constituency, was again included in the ministry in an attempt to prevent the BJP from regaining foothold in the Faizabad region.

The induction of Balwant Singh Ramuwalia, who hailed from Punjab and resigned from Akali Dal to become a minister, was with the objective of wooing the large number of Sikhs who live in some central districts in the state. There is a considerable presence of Sikh voters in Lakhimpur-Kheri, Pilibhit, Shahajahanpur and Bareilly districts.

Akhilesh’s detractors, however, termed the rejig as a futile exercise and a “desperate attempt” to show that he was in-charge. “The reshuffle has no meaning...it is now too late for Akhilesh to do anything to change the perception…in effect, there is no change in the nature of the cabinet,” said BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

Congress leader Dwijendra Tripathi concurred. “Akhilesh has many ministers in his cabinet who have dubious records...if the exercise was aimed at an image make-over, it has failed to achieve that,” Tripathi said. Senior SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary rubbished the opposition charges that the state government had several power centres. “Akhilesh was always in-charge…there was never any doubt about it,” he said.

It remains to be seen if an assertive Akhi-lesh and his revamped team will be able to lead the party to another victory in 2017.