Akhilesh Yadav to be chief minister of UP, India's largest state

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, India), Mar 10 (PTI) Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, will be the new and youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh state, representing a generational shift in India's most populous northern Indian state whose politics has been dominated by caste and religion. Ending all speculation, Akhilesh, 38, was elected unanimously at a meeting of the SP legislature party in which senior party leader Azam Khan, who is said to have had some reservations, proposed his name. Outgoing UP chief minister Mayawati was 39 when she first became chief minister of the state in 1995 in a coalition government with support from SP. The proposal was seconded by Mulayam's brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, who also reportedly had some misgivings initially about handing over chiefministership to the young leader who is credited in a major way with reviving the party's fortunes in the elections. The new state government under the chief ministership of Akhilesh Yadav will be sworn into office on March 15. The election of Akhilesh Yadav was followed by a thunderous clapping of the assembled gathering of newly-elected state legislators as well members of Parliament of the party. That Akhilesh, who campaigned across the state on the plank of development, could be in the race for chiefministership was evident when the party got an absolute majority in the 403-member Assembly by winning 224 seats, notwithstanding the reservations of some seniors. However, in the last two days 73-year SP president Mulayam Singh reportedly worked on the seniors and persuaded them about handing over the mantle of chiefministership to his son. Seen as the modern face who gave the Samajwadi Party an image makeover, Akhilesh was born on July 1, 1973. He studied at a military school at Dholpur in Rajasthan state, acquired a degree in civil engineering from Mysore University in Karnataka and then went on to do a masters in civil environmental engineering from Sydney in Australia. He played a leading role in shedding the party's image of being anti-English and anti-computers and also in denying tickets to candidates with criminal antecedents. Akhilesh Yadav at present is a member of India's Parliament, representing the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh. Under the Indian Constitution a non-member of a state legislature can be sworn in as a minister or chief minister. But such an appointee needs to get himself elected as a member of the state legislature within a period of six months. PTI Caption for pic: Samajwadi Party's Uttar Pradesh state unit president Akhilesh Yadav acknowledging greetings at a press conference at the party's office in Lucknow on Friday. PTI Photo