Who is Pranjal Yadav, the IAS officer who nixed Modi's Varanasi rally?

Even by the standards of this bitterly fought Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s warcry against the Election Commission and the district magistrate of Varanasi are a bit shocking. The BJP has pointed out that the DM (also returning officer for the election) is a counsin of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son-in-law Ram Gopal Yadav, asking people to read between the lines there, and demanding his immediate transfer. They even mentioned a “ Yadav" lobby , a direct reference to the officer’s caste. [caption id=“attachment_1515357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Yadav has denied any bias. Image courtesy News18[/caption] The man at the centre of the spotlight for refusing to permit the BJP rally on security grounds, Pranjal Yadav, may have been called a “ delinquent officer ” by BJP leader Arun Jaitley, but in the temple town of Varanasi, the 34-year-old district magistrate is known as an IIT graduate who has championed development of the town through several initiatives including better roads, better traffic management and removal of encroachments in the congested city. According to a report in The Indian Express _,_ Yadav has earned the image of a non-nonsense officer committed to a development agenda ever since he took charge in February 2013. He has undertaken eviction of encroachers despite opposition, sent a water works engineer to police custody for not getting a project expedited, and ticked off several other officers for a slack approach. The report says Yadav who belongs to Shahjahanpur is an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee. The mechanical engineer has earlier served as DM of Maharajganj and Azamgarh. He has worked “relentlessly” to rid Varanasi of its perpetual traffic jams, says this report in The Economic Times . According to the report, “Yadav has in a short span of time acquired legions of admirers in Varanasi thanks to the ingenious manner in which he took on encroachments.” He reportedly razed buildings from midnight to 3 am. While Narendra Modi said he was making a claim “with responsibility” when he said the EC was partisan, Yadav has maintained that there are intelligence reports warning of security concerns over holding the meeting at the venue the BJP is insisting upon.