UP bypolls: Akhilesh’s 3-foot-tall ‘star campaigner’ makes up for his absence

MEERUT: In the absence Samajwadi Party president Akhiesh Yadav from poll-bound Noorpur and Kairana, his battery of loyalists have been working overtime to ensure that he is “not missed”. Among them is a 3-foot-tall lawyer, Pramod Yadav (45), who has become a major attraction among the local voters. A die-hard Akhilesh fan, Pramod has been campaigning for the SP for the last one decade.“We will definitely win even if he does not campaign,” the lawyer said emphatically.
Pramod, a native of Bareilly, has been campaigning nonstop for almost a week now. He is being accompanied by a delegation of party supporters, who in-turn are working in tandem with senior SP leaders.
Be it booth-level campaigning or sector-level promotion, the “little crowd puller” is seen everywhere. “His height may be short, but there is a lot of passion in his speech. People from far-off areas have been coming to see him,” said an SP supporter accompanying Pramod.
The 45-year-old lawyer often recalls how Akhilesh had once got a picture clicked with him and shared it on his social media account. “His passion for the party has only increased after that,” said the SP supporter.
Meanwhile, BJP has been trying to cash in on the conspicuous absence of senior SP leaders such as Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan. “Akhilesh Yadav has no moral courage to campaign. His hands are smeared in the blood of people killed in Muzaffarnagar riots,” chief minister Yogi Adityanath had exhorted during an election rally in Saharanpur recently.