Indian politics: All in the family

New Delhi, Jun 10: With Dimple Yadav elected to the Lok Sabha, the issue of dynastic politics has again come to the fore.

Dimple, wife of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, will be the sixth member from the family of Samajwadi party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in politics and holding elective posts.

While Mulayam is himself a Lok Sabha member, his nephew Dharmendra Yadav is also a member of that House while his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav is in the Rajya Sabha and younger brother Shivpal Yadav is a senior minister in Uttar Pradesh.

But the fact is that sons and daughters and daughters-in-law are no longer an issue in Indian politics.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the most powerful leader in the country, is the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi.

Similar is the case with Maneka Gandhi, former Union Minister and BJP MP who is the second daughter-in-law of the late Prime Minister but is in the rival camp.

There are two other Gandhis in the Lok Sabha -- Rahul and Varun.

"Why you are pointing fingers towards us and not others?", a visibly annoyed Sonia Gandhi had shot back at reporters when asked whether she was not promoting the family by giving her son Rahul a ticket in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

It was over eight years ago and Sonia's reference was to the several kith and kin of leaders of all parties who were already in politics.

They included Rabri Devi, wife of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad; M K Stalin and M K Alagiri, sons of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi; Chandrababu Naidu, son-in-law of N T Rama Rao; A Ramdoss, son of PMK chief Dr Ramadoss; Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and H D Kumaraswamy and H D Revanna, sons of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

PTI