UP elections: Challenges galore for GeNext scions

This election season in Uttar Pradesh, children of political bigwigs from various parties are contesting polls.

Lucknow, Feb 8: Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will not just be a fight for power, it will also be for inheriting political legacy by the new generation of several leaders cutting across party lines.

If the scions of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress -- Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi -- have come together for claiming power through an alliance in the most populous state, there are also sons and daughters of several political bigwigs who will be making an electoral splash this time.

Interestingly, many of these debutants also have solid academic backgrounds and have quit promising careers to either pursue family traditions or their heart's call. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suggestion to senior leaders not to press for tickets for their kin, the Bharatiya Janata Party has given nomination to a fair number of new faces having more established names to take up the contest for government formation in UP.

Leading the "son rise" brigade of the saffron party is UP BJP general secretary Pankaj Singh, son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who has been fielded from Noida in place of sitting BJP MLA Bimla Batham.

Pankaj (38), an MBA from Amity University, has been active in politics since 2002 and had been in ticket contention since 2007 Assembly election when he was almost set to make his debut from Chandauli, the home town of Rajnath.

He has for company Rajasthan Governor and former UP CM Kalyan Singh's grandson Sandeep Singh from the traditional family seat--Atrauli. Sandeep is a post-graduate from the University of Leeds in England.

PTI