POLL\\ The 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, came as a mixed bag for national parties, especially the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with no clear winners emerging in any state. However, it was the verdict in Uttar Pradesh that came as the major disappointment and worry to both. Congress’s high pitched campaign led by scion Rahul Gandhi, and BJP’s attempt to bring in hardliner Uma Bharti, both failed to woo in voters. While Gandhi and Bharti sank, Samajwadi Party (SP) scion and son to party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav (in picture above), successfully spearheaded a campaign to bring his party back to power. SP won 224 seats out of the total 403, becoming the single-largest party and forming the government. The junior Yadav was given credit for the party’s rise from 97 seats in the 2007 Vidhan Sabha polls and was subsequently elected as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav is the youngest chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the age of 38 years. On the same day, 19 Cabinet Ministers and 28 Ministers of State were also sworn in. The poll results was being viewed as a mini-General Elections, foreshadowing the 2014 mandate.