Whatever the result, the recent Assembly election in UP will be remembered for the extraordinary energies invested by Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, and the impact they made.
Both are foreign-educated and exuded modernity, although their idiom varied. Mr Yadav’s appeal was pitched, at base, at a rural or suburban caste constituency. Mr Gandhi’s aim was more universal, in keeping with his personality and the being of his party, which is not rooted in a given caste or creed. For UP, the political language of being modern exemplified by the rising stars is an extraordinary gain.
Both left the stamp of their leadership on the electorate as a whole — even their opponents — and are on their way to becoming stalwarts at an early age if they continue to give evidence of their present trajectory.
Of course, the test of true modernity will lie in their approach to governance. Mr Yadav will have the opportunity to demonstrate this if his party comes to run the state (even if his father Mulayam Singh is chief minister), and Mr Gandhi in the event of President’s Rule.
Mr Gandhi and Mr Yadav had the state as a whole as their ground of engagement. Each also showed the capacity to wage a long phase of political struggle preceding the election.
Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhry, the third of the fresh-faced modern trio with a foreign education, has also made an impression in these polls. But his area of operation was limited to the western parts of the state, and in his case election-time activity was not preceded by an extended period of struggle.
As for Mr Gandhi and Mr Yadav, there are also clear differences between them, not just similarities. The latter possesses an entrenched political constituency in the state’s dominant OBC group. That makes success relatively easier to garner. A good showing that takes his party to power will be clearly acknowledged and give him great mileage, but going below par can possibly lead to an internal backlash.
For Mr Gandhi, a good showing — and this does not mean Congress making a bid in the power stakes — will give him a big lift-off in the eyes of the public (within the Congress he already has this). But a moderate result in the Assembly polls cannot mar his political career. The reason is the Congress has not been in the big league for two generations in UP. Besides, it is widely felt that given the Congress’ lean larder in the state, the state polls were a preparation for the next Lok Sabha election.