New Dawn?

In the dusty lanes of election-bound UP, it seems as though a new era has been ushered in, almost unnoticed. Driving nearly 10,000 km through India's most populous state is Akhilesh Yadav, son of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. Yet, despite the reputation that the SP has, Yadav jr. is out to do something once thought taboo.

The SP's election manifesto promises laptops to students. Forget the financial impossibility of this: here we have a party that once stood against English education, computers and all things modern as it pursued its single-minded goal of "socialism." And how its UP General Secretary makes PowerPoint presentations in English!

Akhilesh Yadav, educated in Sydney, has been compared by many to the Congress heir Rahul Gandhi. He is an odd face that seems nearly maverick in approach. He espouses modern education and technology. For him, English education is necessary for people to be lifted out of poverty. Not something easy to say in a party as parochial as the SP, but that is exactly what he is doing.

Will the SP's new face become the game-changer even as Mayawati's BSP troops ahead on the back of its core Dalit vote? Perhaps. It depends where the urban middle-class goes: this segment, long a bastion for either the BJP or the Congress, could finally have a good reason to vote for the SP. As the polls in UP begin, 2012 could well be a new dawn for the state.