Political battles in Uttar Pradesh, sons are fighting their fathers

Lucknow: They are sons of well-known fathers but before they chart their own political future, they are battling with their fathers’ destiny.

The going is rough for them but they are undeterred by the turbulent weather that they are facing. They are also determined to face adversity with a smile and overcome the bad times.

Aditya Yadav, 34, is the son of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) president Shivpal Yadav.

Aditya, who is a Director of International Cooperative Alliance, has not yet contested his maiden assembly election. He was recently appointed state president of PSPL and circumstances have pitted him against his estranged cousin and SP president Akhilesh Yadav.

Aditya has not received political goodies on a silver platter and he is yet to mount a vitriolic attack on SP.

“I believe in positive politics and drawing a longer line to prove a point,” he says.

Abdullah Azam, 31, is another son who has been wading through adversity since the past three years with his father Mohd Azam Khan.

He has faced a jail term, disqualification from state assembly, and many such trials and turbulations.

Soft-spoken Abdullah has stood by his father like a rock and has not commented on the cases that were heaped upon his family by the UP government.

It was only recently that he hit out at a senior SP leader when the latter made an unsavoury comment on his father.

Like his father, Abdullah also maintains a studied silence on his relationship with the SP leadership and his future.

Another son who is facing the



heat, primarily because of his father, is Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA Abbas Ansari, 30.

His father, Mukhtar Ansari, has been on the state government’s target list for past five years and now Abbas, who recently won his first election, is on the hit list.

He has been declared an absconder in a case under Arms Act. Incidently, Abbas is a national shooting champion in his own right.

One of his aides admitted: “Abbas is paying the price of being his father’s son but he remains undeterred. He is prepared for the worst while hoping for the best.”

Mukhtar Ansari has been behind the bars since 2005 and the family property worth hundreds of crores of rupees has either been seized or destroyed by the government agencies.

Arvind Rajbhar, 34, is the son of SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar and the general secretary of his party.

Arvind is trying to maintain a balance in politics since his father is known to be switching loyalties faster than expected.

He knows the road ahead is not smooth for him unless his father joins a national level alliance before the next Lok Sabha elections but that does not prevent him from asserting his relevance in regional politics.

According to R. K. Singh, a political analyst, “These sons can be termed as midnight’s children since they forayed into politics at a time when their fathers were in the realms of darkness and despair. They have been forced into their fathers’ battles and have no choice but to fight the same. Despite being born into high-profile political families, they do not have the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths.”