‘Akhilesh is SP’s heart, Mulayam its heartbeat’

A milkman, who gained fame as ‘mukhyamantri ka dahiwala’ (CM’s curdman) after he served curd to Akhilesh Yadav, is confident that the leader would return to the helm of affairs after the state assembly election.

Chandrajeet Yadav, a native of Murdaha village, has the names of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh tattooed on his forearm as a mark of loyalty towards the party.

He has even named his elder son after Akhilesh and younger one after his son Arjun.

Chandrajeet gained proximity to the Yadavs after Akhilesh saw the milkman’s ‘Mulayam Singh Yadav’ tattoo during a public meeting at Haresua village in 2009.

“There was a meeting of Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh bhaiyya was the chief guest. Carrying a party flag, I reached the rally venue on a bicycle. I was shouting slogans in support of Mulayam and SP. All of a sudden, Akhilesh bhaiyya sent for me. I went to the dais and sought his blessings,” recalled Chandrajeet.

“Akhilesh bhaiyya caught a glimpse of ‘Mulayam Singh Yadav, Raksha Mantri (defence minister)’ tattooed on my forearm. He asked me to show the tattoo. Soon after seeing netaji’s (Mulayam) name on my forearm, he embraced me and gifted me a mobile phone. On coming to know that I supply milk and curd, he told he wanted to taste the curd prepared by me,” Chandrajeet said.

Akhilesh visited his house and tasted the curd and asked him to keep serving it to him whenever he visited the area.

Chandrajeet tries to serve curd to Akhilesh whenever he comes to know about the CM’s visit but it is not always easy due to security reasons.

While Chandrajeet is perturbed by the infighting in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party, he is confident Akhilesh and Mulayam would resolve differences. “Akhilesh bhaiyya loves ‘netaji’ a lot. I have experienced it time and again,” he said.

Donning T-shirts with pictures of Akhilesh and stole printed with images of cycle, Chandrajeet is campaigning for SP with his friends Virendra Yadav, Ramashankar Vishwakarma, Bahar Yadav and Dular Yadav.

“Akhilesh bhaiya is in my heart and netaji is my heartbeat (Akhilesh bhaiya mere dil me hai, aur Netaji meri dhadkan). Similarly, Akhilesh is the heart of SP and netaji is its hearbeat,” he said.

Chandrajeet said Akhilesh would return as CM because of his pro-poor policies and development.

Akhilesh also visited Chandrajeet’s house a few years ago to enquire about the well-being of his son after he suffered leg injuries.

A few months ago, Chandrajeet and his wife Prema Devi visited Lucknow where security men allowed entry to Chandrajeet only. He mustered courage and apprised the CM about the wish of his wife to see him. Akhilesh immediately instructed the security staff to allow entry to Prema Devi. Later, the couple got a picture clicked with the CM.

During his recent visits to Lucknow, he gave ‘prasad’ of Sankatmochan Temple and ‘lal peda’ (a local sweet) to the CM. He plans to visit Lucknow next month to serve some delicious dishes and curd to Akhilesh.

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