It was supposed to be the crowning moment for Rahul Gandhi, the heir-apparent in India's ruling Congress party, but he was thrashed in this week's state election results and another young man thrust into the spotlight. Akhilesh Yadav has won national acclaim by helping return his father to power as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and politically key state where Gandhi had hoped to stage a revival for Congress as it prepares to contest national elections in 2014. Both men had taken charge of the campaigns to the Uttar Pradesh state legislature —Gandhi for Congress and Yadav for his Samajwadi (Socialist) Party. Relatively unknown outside his state until recently, Yadav proved a canny operator and an effective grass roots campaigner, travelling hundreds of kilometers around Uttar Pradesh on a bicycle.It was a smart move, since the bicycle was the Samajwadi election symbol. Samajwadi ended up with 224 out of the state's 403 seats, enabling it to form the state government without any need for a coalition. Despite an energetic campaign, Gandhi and the Congress party got just 28 seats. “Akhilesh Yadav queered Rahul Gandhi's pitch, by projecting a youthful modernist face, but with the added advantages of being seemingly rooted in local social circumstance,” wrote analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express.
