Click to play videoBijnor: The mascot and the idiom has completely changed. Samajwadi Party's face and heir apparent Akhilesh Yadav is leading the campaign now with Mulayam Singh taking a backseat.
Akhilesh also put his foot down and refused to induct the likes of DP Yadav - an image make over to reach out to the upper-caste.
Akhilesh said, "I may be young but I've decided not to take in corrupt people."
After BJP's fiasco, the SP is eying the floating upper caste votes, at the same time it is keeping doors ajar for a post poll tie-up with the Congress.
"If the Congress government at the Centre falls, we wouldn't have come to their rescue but together with the Congress we are keeping communal forces at bay," added Akhilesh.
But Mulayam's main worry remains western UP. Where a Congress-Ajit tie-up has pushed him out of contention in the Jat-Muslim dominated belt. So now he is working overtime in the area and has also inducted Ajit Singh's close aide Anuradha Chowdhary.
Ajit Singh said, "She's just another party hopper. This won't make any difference to our prospects."
As Akhilesh Yadav tours across Uttar Pradesh on his Kranti rath, he realises that if his party which is currently out of power both at the Centre and the State, is not able to make a dent this time, sustenance till 2014 General polls will be an uphill task.
It's the 19 per cent Muslim vote that had drifted away from the SP after the induction of Kalyan Singh - that Akhilesh is trying to win back. And it will be this vote bank that will decide who comes to power in UP this year.
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