Click to play videoLucknow: The cycle which once rode with history sheeters like Atik Ahmed and DP Yadav is now the launch pad for Cambridge-educated Abhishek Misra. The 34-year-old has just quit his job at IIM Ahmedabad to contest the comming Assembly Elections from Lucknow.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Lucknow said, "Times are changing. The party is making itself relevant to changing times."
The man driving this change is Mulayam Singh Yadav's soft-spoken son Akhilesh. Virtually in-charge of running the party, the 34-year-old has ensured that 122 of the 403 candidates fielded by the party are under the age of 40. Sixty of them are not even 30.
He may stick to Hindi in public but gone is the party's anti-English and anti-computer stance.
So much so - Manifesto 2012 is promising free PC's and tablets to all students.
Akhilesh said, "No harm if kids learn English and computers - this is the way to progress.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh commented on this change and said, "Better late than never. Mulayam Singh Yadav was the staunchest opponent of Rajiv Gandhi's computerisation drive - this change I think is because of young leader Akhilesh."
The SP is not just changing ideologically but socially as well.
Pan chewing has been strictly banned and there is a dress code in place. White khadi kurta pajamas with black leather shoes and socks. Though not all are sticking to it at the moment.
It's often said that more things change, the more they remain the same.
A new dress code - younger cleaner candidates, a tech-savvy image, may go down well with the 21st century voter but a party that was built on Lohia's Socialist egalitarian dream has succumbed to the curse of dynastic politics.
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