“ Aap chillate ho , mujhe darr lagta hai . Shant ho jaiye (When you shout, I get scared. Please be quiet),” irritated by the relentless slogans, Dimple Yadav politely appealed to the audience to maintain decorum. But the interruptions did not stop. She then jokingly threatened to walk off the stage, and warned the animated party supporters that she would complain to the Chief Minister if they did not heed her. “I will tell bhaiya that you did not let me speak. I will complain ... bhaiya is coming here tomorrow,” she said.
Strong composure
Though she appeared distracted by the crowd, Ms. Yadav rarely lost her composure, deploying humour and playfulness to keep her listeners engaged.
Barring minor distractions from party workers, the Kannauj MP’s election meeting in Allahabad on Tuesday stood out for reasons for which she was not known before: a focussed and confident attack on political opponents (in this election, that includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and the advertisement of schemes and work by her party’s government in Uttar Pradesh. On one occasion, she even quoted a famous song from an Amitabh Bachchan film — Mere angne mein tumhara kya kaam hai —to reject Mr. Modi as an outsider.
A stark contrast
This is in stark contrast from the nervous Dimple Yadav of the past — only a year ago, while delivering a speech in the Lok Sabha on women’s emancipation, she fumbled on several occasions, mispronouncing difficult Hindi words. The video went viral and she was widely ridiculed.
Her address in Allahabad pointed to her emergence as a confident leader this election, raising critical political issues while coolly managing unruly party workers from the stage. If she compared the law and order situation of U.P. with that in the States ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), she also delved into farm debt, police recruitment, free gas cylinders, Samajwadi pension, Metro Rail and women’s safety. She was assertive when she promised women that, if voted back to power, the Samajwadi Party would provide 33% reservation to them in government jobs, and remove the age barrier for women in the government sector.
The aggressiveness and confidence in her speeches has impressed party workers and those close to her. “She used to read things out at public platforms. There was also this clumsiness. But now her speeches are interactive. She looks more prepared than before,” an aide of Ms. Yadav said.
For the last few years, Ms. Yadav (39) had been the demure bahu of U.P.’s Yadav clan — SP workers fondly refer to her as ‘Dimple bhabhi ’. Critics dismissed her as a reluctant politician. However, if Akhilesh Yadav has come into his own after a bitter family feud, his wife Dimple has, for the first time, made a serious effort to emerge from the shadows. Not only has her presence added colour to the SP’s campaign, she is also working to fulfil the task assigned to her: connecting with youth and women. Like in Allahabad, where she came out in the support of party candidate and former Allahabad University Student Union president Richa Singh, she is actively campaigning for women candidates of the SP.
“There are huge crowds, lots of young people. They are responding to what we are saying. That’s been the best part of the campaign. The response has been really good. It is going quite well right now,” she told The Hindu .
Ms. Yadav has addressed more than 15 rallies in this election. When asked if she felt she was catapulted into the campaign or felt a part of it, she replied: “The party has given me certain responsibilities since I am a Member of Parliament. And I am fulfilling the responsibilities that have been given to me.”
Those close to her say that the family feud and the timing of the polls have churned her into a “stronger” personality and she is tracking politics more diligently. The SP’s public relations machinery has also been active in promoting her, as has Mr. Akhilesh himself.
“She knows that there is nobody in the family who can strongly support Akhilesh. Mulayam and Shivpal (Mr. Akhilesh’s father and uncle) are not active any more. He has no option but to work with her. Because nobody can be trusted like her as she is his wife. He also understands that because of her elegance and personality, she is popular among the people. People want to see her,” said a close aide of Ms. Yadav.
Apart from supporting her husband and taking up campaigning in full swing this time, Ms. Yadav has also been active in policy formation, especially women’s health and nutrition, through government schemes like Hausla Poshan Yojna and M-Sehat.
Sources say the SP manifesto also has her imprint of her, especially in the inclusion of free pressure cookers and ghee for school children. She is also said to have been instrumental in earmarking a budget for sanitary napkins, the launch of the State Nutrition Mission in November 2014, and inaugurating programmes for preliminary screening of breast and cervical cancer, promotion of the 1090 ‘Women Power Line’, and initiating programmes to provide ghee , bananas and milk to children. She also plays an active role in handling the party’s social media activities.
