Young Leaders Ready To Lead In UP Elections, Set To Compete With CM Yogi

This is the first independent election for Jayant Chaudhary with no guidance from his father Chaudhary Ajit Singh.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath

New Faces to lead in 2022 UP elections: With just six months left for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a new generation of leaders prepares to lead a political campaign and pave the way, for a new politics in the state. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, leading from the front, is faced with the daunting task of reviving a nearly defunct party. Whether Priyanka will contest the assembly elections or not, only time will tell, but she is preparing an aggressive campaign for her party.

- Another new generation politician who will lead his party in the electoral arena is Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Choudhary. For Jayant, this is his first free election without the guidance of his father, Chaudhary Ajit Singh. Ajit Singh died in May this year due to Covid. His active role in the farmers' movement and the support he is getting from his Jat community have tilted the scales in his favor.

 Aditya Yadav may contest his first election in 2022.

Shivpal Singh Yadav's son Aditya Yadav may contest his first election in 2022, though his constituency is yet to be decided. Aditya was about to make his electoral debut in 2017, but family squabbles almost split the Samajwadi Party, forcing him to shelve his plans. Aditya is learning organizational skills from his father Shivpal Yadav and is his most trusted aide.

Chandrashekhar Azad has entered the campaign 

Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad is another young politician to make his debut in the state. The name of his party is Azad Samaj Party. Chandrashekhar has already embarked on the campaign, and his cycle tours are going on all over the state these days. His aides say he will not contest this time but will ensure that his party gets enough Dalit support – a move that could be directly detrimental to the interests of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

New faces cannot bring change: BJP

While the BJP may field several new candidates by replacing the existing MLAs, the party is not worried about the entry of young leaders from other parties. BJP state vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, "New faces cannot bring change. BJP is working on the ground and people know what our governments have done for them. These new faces can grab people's attention but not votes." SP spokesperson Juhi Singh, however, said that change is a continuous process and new leaders will bring a change in the political landscape with the advent of new faces.