Lucknow: 5, Vikramaditya Marg is not quite the mansion you’d expect. It is an old colonial bungalow, barely a kilometer away from the Samajwadi Party office, with a fresh coat of white paint and French windows. The whole look is pretty non-fussy if you discount the 10 security personnel hanging around.
They say ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav is in residence. He is getting ready to go campaigning for his daughter-in-law Aparna, who is the wife of his younger son Prateek Yadav and is contesting from Lucknow Cantt. It is only the third time he is stepping out this election season after his elder son and Chief Minister Akhilesh orchestrated a coup and took control of the Samajwadi Party.
Prateek dismisses this gossip. “Every evening, till two months ago, bhaiyya and I played badminton together. It has stopped now because of elections. Even when the party was in a state of crisis, every day the family met. The gate between our house and Akhilesh bhaiyya's house was always open," he says. Akhilesh recently shifted to the bungalow next door with his wife and three kids.
Prateek, 30, is a businessman with a real estate empire. But his latest passion is Sparta, the gym he has opened in upmarket Gomti Nagar. He has been working out for the last 13 years and has the built of a 'pehelwan' (wrestler). "It is one of the best gyms in India. In the next 10 years, I hope to have 100 branches across the country. I have worked very hard to build my own identity and earn my own money.”
Prateek and Aparna were school sweethearts who dated for 12 years before getting married. Both went to England for their post-graduation — he to Leeds, she to Manchester.
He helps take care of their four-year-old daughter Prathama when Aparna, 28, is away campaigning. Wasn't there pressure on him to join politics? Enough journalists in Lucknow talk about how his “ambitious” mother wanted him to be the 'inheritor’ of Mulayam's political legacy and how he is really at the root of the feud between his father and step-brother.
"I don't know why my mother has been painted as a villain. Maybe because she is the second wife. She has, for the last 30 years, kept the family together. The step-mom narrative really upsets her. What happened was a party problem, not a family problem. You should interview her and see if she really is the evil person she is made out to be."
During this conversation, the lady in question steps out to see off a group of women. She gives an apologetic smile for being dressed in a nightie. She doesn't want to be interviewed. But she stays on, peeping from behind a pillar, to see the cameraman capture Prateek in his much-talked about blue Lamborgini.
It made headlines when Prateek decided to race it down Lucknow just as Akhilesh and Mulayam were locked in a bitter fight over the cycle, the party’s electoral symbol. It is the only Lamborgini in UP, he says. "I had seen one in London 10 years ago and it was love at first sight. But I had never thought I would be able to afford it." With a price tag of Rs 5.3 crore, it isn't exactly a ‘samajwadi’ car. "But I am not a samajwadi. And neither am I the spoilt prince I am made out to be. I pay an EMI of Rs 6 lakh every month for the car. Maybe people should meet me before they make up their minds about me."
Maybe they should. But chances are that we are going to be seeing more of Aparna than of him in the coming days. The daughter of a journalist, she insists it is her father-in-law who was keen on her joining politics. "Prateek was asked. He said no. But Netaji insisted I fight elections. He said that as a politician, I will be able to do more for the people. Else, I was happy with my social work,” she says.
Lucknow Cantt, where Aparna is contesting from, is a curious pick. It was with the BJP for the last 20 years. In 2012, Rita Bahugana Joshi won on a Congress ticket from here. The Samajwadi Party was fourth. "Why are you calling her (Joshi) a veteran? Just because she is an old woman? She has done no work here," says Aparna.
Whatever the equation at home, both Akhilesh and his wife Dimple have come out to campaign for Aparna. But there are skeptics from within Aparna's own team who say there is little beyond this public show of support. "Tell me, who gave me the ticket? Bhaiyya (Akhilesh), right? Then why all this controversy? Our relations are very cordial,” the Yadav bahu, clad in a kani shawl and white sneaker, says while on her way to her next rally where Akhilesh Yadav is expected. He is running three hours late.
Ghulam Nabi Azad has already looked at his watch twice. When the CM does arrive, the crowd roars. She smiles and touches his feet. She is not the star today. But if she beats the odds and wins this election, she will be.
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