NEW DELHI|LUCKNOW: Last Tuesday, Pankaj Singh filed his first-ever election nomination from Noida after being with the party for over 15 years but his father Rajnath Singh was not by his side. The Home Minister chose to proceed to Punjab to hold election rallies for BJP. In Indian polity, where the ‘rajneetik darohar’ gets passed on without a blink to one’s kin and the occasion is invariably celebrated, this was a unique event.In a state where its biggest political family has seen much upheaval leading to Akhilesh Yadav stealing a march over his father Mulayam Singh Yadav after being anointed by him as the chief minister five years ago, many other daddies are trying to manage their sons or daughters for a smoother succession and seamless transfer of their political lineage. In conversation with various leaders across political parties, many of whom chose to remain anonymous, ET tried to fathom what was on the mind of the daddies.Chart your own path - this seems clearly the Home Minister’s mantra to his son Pankaj, who finally got a ticket from the BJP this time to contest from Noida. Singh was not there with Pankaj when the latter filed his nomination, has not accompanied him for any public meeting and no rally by Rajnath Singh is expected in Pankaj’s constituency.“Pankaj is not a novice in politics. He has been with BJP for 15 years in various capacities in the state BJP unit. Woh saksham hai...apna election khud ke dam par jeetenge tabhi to aage rajneeti kar payenge (Pankaj is capable...if he wins his election on his own, then only he can do politics in future),” a BJP leader said on the Home Minister’s thinking. In fact, it is tourism minister and Noida MP Mahesh Sharma who has taken Pankaj under his wing and is shadowing Pankaj during the latter’ campaign.While the Rajnath camp sees this as him not unduly pushing his son’s case in the party, Samajwadi Party leaders in Lucknow had told ET that the delay over Pankaj’s ticket had upset Rajnath. “Grih Mantri ke bete ka ticket pehli list mein naa ho, yeh to bezatti ki baat hai. Unki seat pe vivaad tha tabhi to aisa hua (It is a matter of insult if the Home Minister’s son ticket is not on the first list),” a SP leader said. BJP sources concede there was double-think whether Pankaj should contest from Sahibabad or Noida -till the latter safe seat was given for his debut.It has also not been missed in political circles that Rajnath was conspicuous by his absence from the manifesto release function by BJP President Amit Shah in Lucknow on Saturday, and remained put in Delhi. “Amit Shah was there so no need for Rajnath to also be there,” a source close to Home Minister said.BJP leaders concede that its ticket list has a clear stamp of Kalyan Singh and various candidates recommended by the former two-time UP chief minister were duly accepted, including many of his relatives and acquaintances as well as his 25-yearold grandson Sandeep Singh who is the youngest BJP candidate in these polls. Kalyan Singh may be sitting in the Rajasthan Raj Bhawan but his influence over BJP’s election plans in UP is unmissable.The party feels his formula of going after non-Yadav OBC votes will pave its way to power - with both PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah repeatedly invoking Kalyan Singh’s reign as a model BJP government in UP. “Kalyan Singh’s departure from BJP and his rival political outfit hurt BJP immensely - both in 2007 and 2012 polls. BJP has learnt its lesson, to now respect him,” a source close to the veteran leader told ET.The focus on the family is very clear in Babuji’s backyard, as Kalyan Singh is fondly called in UP. Babuji’s shadow reigns supreme over the family, his control complete.After returning to the BJP fold before the 2014 polls, Kalyan Singh got his son Rajveer Singh a BJP ticket from Etah and he won. Rajveer’s wife Premlata has been an MLA from the family’s home borough of Atrauli which Kalyan earlier won 10 times and from where his grandson Sandeep has been fielded now. Sandeep’s parents are micro-managing his election campaign. Three other relatives of Kalyan Singh also got tickets.‘Ab mene Abdullah ko Ijjazat de di hai’, said veteran SP leader Azam Khan to announce his son Abdullah’s entry into active politics. The party later allotted the Suar seat in Rampur district to Abdullah and the Rampur City seat to his father , who has been eight-time-MLA from there since 1980. Azam Khan’s political inheritor faces a challenge in Suar where the local Nawab, Kazim Ali Khan, is the sitting three-time MLA since 2002 and SP stood third there in the last election. Azam Khan, unsurprisingly, is micro-managing his son’s political debut to the last detail - keen to ensure getting back at the Nawabs with whom his family had various political run-ins. The fatherson duo went together to file their nominations accompanied by a huge crowd last week. During the tussle within the Yadav family earlier, Mulayam had even thought about Azam Khan as CM face of his faction if the Samajwadi Party splits. But Azam is wiser on that count -- and harbours no such ambitions of being CM or PM.While playing the peacemaker in the Yadav family, Azam is said to also take immense pride in the upbringing of his own son. A politically diametrical but socially similar case is of veteran BJP former six-time MLA and now MP from Kairana, Hukum Singh. He is unabashed about parivarvaad in politics. “Family is a reality in Indian politics. Everyone wants a political successor from within the family. Let us be clear about it,” he told ET, declaring he will not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but go the extra mile to ensure his daughter Mriganka wins on a BJP ticket from Kairana in these assembly elections.Hukum Singh accompanies Mriganka for every election campaign - micro-managing each aspect. His rivals in fact accuse him of raising the ‘hindu exodus’ issue in Kairana last year to lay the political ground for his daughter’s political debut. “He was worried after his nephew lost in the 2014 Kairana assembly by-poll following him moving to Lok Sabha. Hence, he raised the fake issue of hindu exodus,” says the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hassan.Many other daddies are said to have excessively lobbied for tickets for their sons - to the extent of even threatening to quit the party. Swami Prasad Maurya, the senior BJP leader who had defected from BSP, sent feelers to BJP that he would quit and join the Congress if his son and daughter were not given a ticket along with him. The party relented only for him and his son - which has pacified Maurya. BJP did so also for its Moradabad MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar whose son has been given a ticket despite him being a political novice and triggering opposition at local level. Kumar, earlier a five-time MLA holds weight as he won the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat for the BJP for the first time since independence in 2014.Veteran BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is said to have also put in more than just a word to the party for a ticket to his son from Gonda.But will the ‘Cool Daddies’ of UP ultimately be wiser from the Yadav saga to call it a day in time to let their sons and daughters have the limelight? Their kin would hope so.