Akhilesh Yadav anointed as UP chief minister

Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and himself a third-term Member of Parliament, was today officially anointed by the party as the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The appointment was widely expected, as Akhilesh is considered the key architect of the SP's sweeping victory in the state assembly elections that concluded early this week. He is considered to have outsmarted Rahul Gandhi, the key campaigner for the Congress, in 'youth' politics.

Akhilesh will take office on 15 March. At 38, he will be the state's youngest-ever chief minister. His predecessor Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party he helped defeat, was 39 when she took over UP in a coalition government supported by the SP.

Akhilesh was elected unanimously at a meeting of the SP legislature party in which senior leader Azam Khan proposed his name. Khan was earlier thought to have some reservations about Akhilesh and would have preferred Mulayam Singh to again take over the helm.

The proposal was seconded by Mulayam Singh's brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, who also reportedly had some misgivings earlier about handing over the leadership of the state, and indirectly the party, to the relatively inexperienced Akhilesh.

Akhilesh Yadav's predecessor Mayawati was 39 when she first became chief minister in 1995 in a coalition government with support from SP.