Will Mulayam's younger son have to face in SP what Varun faced in Congress?

Prateek & wife cosy up to Yogi Adityanath, as Akhilesh sidelines dad, takes charge of party

Tongues have started wagging at the growing proximity of new Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger son Prateek and daughter-in-law Aparna.

The cosying up of members of the two arch rival political parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the SP, is making political pundits and commentators to sit up and take note of the possibilities in future, especially in the context of incumbent SP President Akhilesh Yadav completely taking control of the party and sidelining Mulayam.

Yogi on Friday visited a cow shed ‘Kanha Upvan’, being run by the Yadav couple on the outskirts of Lucknow. Set up about 5 years back, it houses 2,000 abandoned cows and bulls.

On March 24, Prateek and Aparna had called upon CM Yogi at his Lucknow’s VVIP Guest House. Aparna said they had urged the Chief Minister to pay a visit to the cow shed, since Yogi himself espouses the cause and runs a similar shed at the Gorakhnath Peeth in Gorakhpur.

In the past too, Aparna had been meeting Yogi — who is also the head seer of the Peeth — at Gorakhpur and paid obeisance at the Gorakhpur temple.

Earlier, Aparna had also openly supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness and sanitation drive. At a family wedding in the Yadav’s native village of Saifai in Etawah, Prateek and Aparna had gleefully clicked a selfie with Modi, who had come after the invitation from then SP Chief Mulayam and then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

In the recently concluded UP assembly poll, Aparna had contested from the Lucknow Cantonment constituency but had lost to BJP nominee Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Now with the SP out of power in UP and the party reigns firmly with Akhilesh, who shares a rather lukewarm relationship with his stepmother and brother, there are only bleak chances of Prateek and Aparna getting a slice of the SP’s political legacy, since Mulayam himself has lost much of his clout in the party.

Although, Prateek and Aparna have told the news channels have denied any political motive at meeting Yogi, chances cannot be ruled out of possible redux of Congress’ ruling Nehru-Gandhi family witnessing a similar development when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay’s widow Maneka and her son Varun had joined the BJP in February 2004 after being sidelined in the grand old party of India.

Congress’ political legacy had bequeathed to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who are the incumbent party president and vice president.