He had a small one: Clean-shaven Akhilesh parades ex-pradhan in battle of moustaches
"Moochhen hon toh Nathulal jaisi hon, warna na hon." Four decades after Amitabh Bachchan made the line famous in Prakash Mehra's 1984 film Sharaabi, a clean-shaven Akhilesh Yadav produced its political sequel in Uttar Pradesh, casting a former village pradhan.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav invited 75-year-old former village pradhan Jagdish Yadav onto the stage at a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday, seated him behind himself and asked him to twirl his luxuriant moustache. "Moochhen hon toh aisi hon, tab taav dena achchha lagta hai," Akhilesh said, meaning, "If one has a moustache, it should be like his. Only then does it feel good to twirl it."
Behind what might seem like a light-hearted spectacle is a pointed political attack on Mainpuri City Circle Officer (CO) Ashok Kumar Singh, and on the Yogi Adityanath government.
Last week, a video showed Singh twirling his moustache during a tense exchange outside a post-mortem facility and telling those recording him to "show the clip to Akhilesh".
The SP chief suggested that the officer's swagger stemmed from caste-based protection for certain communities under the BJP government in UP. The episode also acquires importance given the persistent Rajput-versus-Yadav political tussle in Uttar Pradesh, and has an undertone ahead of the crucial 2027 Assembly election.
Akhilesh also handed Jagdish an envelope containing money for maintaining his moustache, according to a report. HOW A MURDER CASE SPARKED THE MOUSTACHE ROWThe controversy began after Subhash Kumar, a truck helper aged around 22, was shot dead near Aghar village in Mainpuri's Elao police station area on August 31. The truck driver was also injured in the firing. Subhash's relatives and SP workers gathered outside the post-mortem facility to demand action. CO Ashok Singh was speaking to them when some members of the gathering began filming him and allegedly made caste-related remarks.
In a video that went viral, Singh appeared agitated, stroked his moustache and declared, "Bana lo video, viral kar dena, Akhilesh Yadav ko de dena. (Record a video, make it viral and give it to Akhilesh Yadav)."
Pointing towards his nameplate, he also identified himself by his full name, named his father as Balbir Singh and said he belonged to Azamgarh. While Azamgarh is in eastern UP, the incident occurred in Mainpuri, an SP bastion, and currently represented in the Lok Sabha by Akhilesh's wife, Dimple Yadav.
The officer later said the viral footage had been cropped and circulated without its full context.
According to Singh, people in the crowd had called him politically motivated, referred to his caste and threatened to send his video to Akhilesh and other leaders. He maintained that the police acted impartially in the murder case and made arrests on the basis of evidence, reported Aaj Tak, India Today Digital's sister portal.AKHILESH SEES CASTE-POWER BEHIND OFFICER'S SWAGGER
Sharing the video, Akhilesh Yadav turned the officer's moustache twirl into an accusation against the BJP government.
"He has the protection of those in power belonging to his caste, which is why he twirls his moustache with such swagger. What justice can be expected from such people? But this will last only a few more days, as change is knocking at the door. We will not demand his suspension," Akhilesh posted on X, sharing the CO's video of the heated exchange.
The expression "satta-sajatiya" in his post in Hindi was widely read as an allusion to the alleged influence of Rajput or Thakur officers under the government led by CM Adityanath, who is a Thakur. Akhilesh deliberately stopped short of demanding Singh's suspension and instead suggested that the answer would come through a political change. advertisementHIS MOUSTACHE WAS VERY SMALL, SAYS AKHILESHDays after Singh's video went viral, Akhilesh returned to the controversy at a press conference. He used humour.
"Uski moochhen bahut chhoti thin (His moustache was very small)," he said.
Then, Akhilesh welcomed the perfect visual answer to counter the BJP rule in UP, which he said "belonged to one caste". A longtime SP worker, Jagdish Yadav of Baghaura village from UP's Lalitpur district, who's known for his dense and dark moustachio, came in. He also had the iconic red SP cap on his head.
Akhilesh then invoked the famous dialogue from Sharaabi movie, saying a moustache should be like Nathulal's and that there was little point in twirling a small one.
Jagdish, who developed a fondness for moustaches at around 20, and has not cut his in nearly 55 years, had served three consecutive terms as village pradhan from 1995 to 2010. He has been with the SP since its formation in 1992.
The BJP defended CO Singh, with party spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi describing the moustache twirl as a traditional expression of bravery rather than caste. He accused Akhilesh of viewing even an officer's moustache through a casteist lens.
However, by putting Jagdish and his formidable moustache on the stage, Akhilesh made good use of his pantryman’s treasure to launch a political attack on the BJP-led UP government. In the run up to 2027, a simple twirl of the moustache isn't so simple. It is feeding the narrative of caste and political power in Uttar Pradesh.- EndsPublished By: Sushim MukulPublished On: Sep 11, 2026 13:54 IST
