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Mom & dad are their launchpad

In UP, many young leaders have debuted from seats held by their parents.

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Varun Gandhi may have grabbed the headlines. But there are many sons and other assorted relatives of senior politicians waiting to make their mark on UP’s electoral horizon. Nepotism is clearly at a premium in all the parties.

It’s Varun’s debut in electoral politics and he is contesting from Pilibhit, a seat hitherto represented by his mother Maneka Gandhi, who has now shifted to Aonla. Interestingly, Varun only seems to be following cousin Rahul who debuted from Amethi in 2004. The seat was previously won by his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who contested from neighbouring Rae Bareli in 2004.

Sonia and Rahul are contesting these seats once again. In fact, they are the only example in the country of a mother-son duo contesting from neighbouring seats. Another example of a political sonrise is Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The stage for the son’s entry into electoral politics was set in 1999 when the dad won from two seats, Sambhal and Kannauj.

He vacated Kannauj which Akhilesh contested and won in the by-election.
Mulayam also introduced his nephew Dharmendra Yadav much in the same manner. The SP chief, who was then UP chief minister, won the Mainpuri seat in the 2004 election but vacated it to concentrate on UP politics. Dharmendra won the seat in the by-election.

Another party chief’s son making an entry into UP’s electoral politics this time is Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary who is contesting from Mathura. Interestingly, the SP has not put up a candidate against him apparently to ensure his defeat at the hands of the BSP candidate.

Late former prime minister VP Singh’s son Ajeya Singh is also entering the electoral ring for the first time as a candidate of Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti Party from Fatehpur.

Other examples of candidates contesting in the name of the father are late veteran Congress leader Jitendra Prasada’s son and Union minister Jitin Prasada from Dhaurhara, UP BJP president Ramapati Ram Tripathi’s son Sharad Tripathi from Sant Kabir Nagar, senior BJP leader Om Prakash Singh’s son Anurag Singh from Mirzapur, and late Congress leader ‘Raja’ Dinesh Singh’s daughter ‘Rajkumari’ Ratna Singh from Pratapgarh.

Such is the desire to secure the offspring’s political future that former UP Assembly Speaker and veteran SP leader Dhaniram Verma quit the party to get a BSP ticket for son Mahesh Verma from Kannauj. East UP mafia don Hari Shankar Tiwari, a former Congress leader, has scored a hat-trick, getting tickets for both his sons and a nephew.
It’s not only sons, though. UP Energy Minister Ramveer Upadhyaya’s wife Seema is the BSP candidate against film star Raj Babbar in Fatehpur Sikri, and another minister Thakur Jaiveer Singh’s wife Rajkumari is the BSP candidate for Aligarh.

The justification given by party leaders to gloss over the dynastic phenomenon is interesting. “Questioning Rahul Gandhi’s candidature on this ground is ridiculous,” says UP Congress spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh. “He is a leader who can win from anywhere in the country... he can get others to win. That’s not because he is somebody’s son. It’s because of his own personality and immense popularity,” he adds.
Asked about BJP leaders’ sons BJP spokesman Hriday Narayan Dixit told DNA: “They are there because local party leaders asked for them. It’s their winnability, not their relatives, which was decisive.”

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