In the sprawling, complex saga of India’s most storied political dynasties, Prateek Yadav was always the quiet chapter — the son who chose dumbbells over daisies, gyms over rallies, and silence over speeches. He was Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger son, half-brother to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and husband of BJP leader Aparna Yadav. And yet, despite being surrounded by some of the most powerful names in Indian politics, Prateek carved out a life entirely his own.
On the morning of May 13, 2026, that life ended abruptly. He was 38 years old.
Family Background: Born into the Eye of a Storm
To understand Prateek Yadav, you must first understand the unusual web of relationships that shaped him from birth.
His mother, Sadhana Gupta, was originally from Bindhuna in Uttar Pradesh and had been married to a man named Chandra Prakash Gupta. That marriage did not last. After separating from Chandra Prakash, Sadhana found herself in a relationship with Mulayam Singh Yadav — the formidable Samajwadi Party patriarch who had already been married to his first wife, Malti Devi, since 1957.
Malti Devi, Akhilesh Yadav’s biological mother, suffered serious health complications following childbirth and passed away in 2003. That same year, on May 23, 2003, Mulayam Singh officially married Sadhana Gupta — a union that had quietly existed for years before it was acknowledged publicly.
Prateek was thus, technically, Chandra Prakash Gupta’s biological son — but Mulayam Singh Yadav raised him, accepted him, and provided for him with all the love and resources of a father. When a CBI inquiry into Mulayam Singh’s disproportionate assets reached the Supreme Court in 2007, Mulayam filed an affidavit formally recognizing Sadhana and Prateek as members of his family. It was the law, not sentiment alone, that made the relationship official on paper — but by all accounts, the bond was real long before that.
Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away on October 10, 2022, leaving behind a political legacy carried largely by his elder son. Sadhana Gupta had preceded him in death, passing away on July 9, 2022, at a private hospital in Gurugram. With Prateek’s death in May 2026, the family has now endured three devastating losses in just four years.
The Man Behind the Name: Who Was Prateek Yadav?
In a family where politics is practically genetic, Prateek Yadav was a refreshing anomaly. He had no desire for constituency battles, no interest in party rallies, and no appetite for the theatre of power. “Politics had never piqued Prateek’s interest,” sources close to the family have noted. Even when Mulayam Singh reportedly encouraged him to enter political life, Prateek declined — preferring, as he once said, “to live a quiet life.”
What he did have was an obsessive passion for fitness and bodybuilding. As an overweight teenager, it was Mulayam Singh himself — a wrestling champion in his youth — who pushed Prateek toward physical exercise. The nudge took root in a way no one could have anticipated. Prateek transformed his physique and, eventually, turned that personal journey into a professional enterprise.
In January 2015, Prateek launched Iron Core Fit in Lucknow’s upmarket Gomti Nagar neighbourhood. The gym spanned 7,000 square feet across three floors and was inaugurated by Olympic silver medalist and wrestler Sushil Kumar. Notably, there were no photographs of Prateek with his politician father or chief minister brother anywhere inside — it was deliberately his own space. He later also opened The Fitness Planet, another gym venture in Lucknow.
Beyond fitness, Prateek was involved in real estate and ran an NGO for homeless people. He also channeled his compassion into animal welfare through an organisation called Jeev Ashray, which worked for the rescue, treatment, feeding, and care of stray animals in Lucknow.
He was educated in the United Kingdom — having studied at the University of Leeds — before returning to India to build his own businesses. He drove a Lamborghini reportedly worth over ₹5 crore, lived large in Lucknow’s social circles, and maintained an active Instagram presence with over 307,000 followers.
The Love Story: Eight Years, One Wedding, and a Complicated Ending
Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of Prateek Yadav’s life was his love story with Aparna Bisht — a romance that began in the corridors of school life and culminated in a grand wedding, before unravelling quietly under the weight of politics and personal differences.
Aparna and Prateek first met as teenagers through a mutual friend. They shared email addresses and began corresponding — and it was over email that Prateek first expressed his feelings for her. According to Aparna in an earlier interview, she fell in love with him while still in Class 10, and for a long time did not even know he was from the influential Yadav family.
The relationship blossomed quietly over the years. They were together for nearly eight years before getting engaged in 2011. Their wedding, held in December 2011, was a grand social and political event attended by prominent politicians, business personalities, and celebrities. It was the kind of ceremony that Lucknow talked about for years.
Together, they became parents to two daughters — Prathama Yadav (the elder) and Katyayani Yadav (the younger). Prateek was, by all accounts, a doting father who frequently posted photos with his daughters on social media and cherished the time he spent with his family.
However, the fairytale had a complicated second act. Aparna Yadav, who had initially contested elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket, made a watershed move in January 2022 — she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party’s principal political adversary. The move shocked many and created visible tensions in the family. Reports of strained relations between Aparna and Prateek began to surface through 2025, as their public statements and social media posts increasingly seemed at odds with each other.
Then, in January 2026, Prateek made a striking revelation on Instagram — he posted about his intention to seek a divorce from Aparna Yadav, citing personal differences and mental health struggles. The post sent shockwaves through political circles and drew national media attention. The couple, once Lucknow’s golden pair, appeared to be heading toward a painful separation. Reports also emerged suggesting Prateek had been struggling emotionally in the months before his death.
Aparna Yadav, who currently serves as Vice Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission in Uttar Pradesh, has remained a prominent public figure throughout. The nature of their relationship at the time of Prateek’s death — whether reconciled or estranged — was not publicly confirmed.
His Relationship with Akhilesh Yadav: A Complex Brotherhood
The relationship between Prateek Yadav and his half-brother Akhilesh Yadav was one of the most delicate dynamics in the Yadav family — marked by warmth in some moments, distance in others, and shaped by the complicated politics of their shared legacy.
Akhilesh knew about his father’s relationship with Sadhana and Prateek as far back as the 1990s. But acknowledging that relationship publicly — especially within the family — was another matter entirely. Mulayam’s household was reportedly divided into two informal camps: the Akhilesh camp and the Sadhna camp. Akhilesh had long been wary of Sadhana’s influence over Mulayam Singh and was reportedly unhappy when she was officially accepted into the family home and inner circle.
Reports from within the SP indicate that Sadhana had reportedly secured a promise from Mulayam that Prateek would be given a political position equivalent to Akhilesh’s by 2014. When that did not materialize, family tensions reportedly came to a head. Akhilesh was also said to have accused Sadhana of accumulating family property and interfering in key state appointments during his tenure as Chief Minister.
And yet, despite these undercurrents of tension, the brotherhood was never entirely cold. Akhilesh attended Prateek and Aparna’s wedding in 2011, a public gesture of familial acceptance. And in 2017, when Prateek reportedly tried repeatedly to reach Akhilesh by phone one morning — calling him four times without an answer — he eventually showed up at Akhilesh’s home and walked into an ongoing meeting, asking: “Does the honourable CM even have a minute to spare for his brother?” Akhilesh sat him down beside him without hesitation.
It was a moment that captured the contradictions of their bond perfectly — a brotherhood that was sometimes strained by circumstance, but never entirely broken.
Prateek, for his part, consistently avoided positioning himself as any kind of political rival to Akhilesh. He had no such ambitions. The gym in Gomti Nagar, conspicuously free of political photographs, said as much. He was content to be the other son — the one who lived life on his own terms.
The Final Chapter: Death at 38
On May 13, 2026, at approximately 4:55 AM, an emergency call was received at the Civil Hospital in Lucknow regarding Prateek Yadav’s condition. He was rushed to the facility immediately, but doctors declared him “brought dead” upon arrival. Medical staff later confirmed that his passing had likely occurred approximately an hour before he reached the hospital.
He was 38 years old.
A post-mortem examination was ordered to determine the official cause of death. Reports had previously surfaced suggesting Prateek had been grappling with depression and mental health challenges in the months leading up to his death, and some accounts noted that his body showed injury marks — details that remained under investigation.
The news sent shockwaves through Uttar Pradesh’s political and social circles. Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party expressed their grief, as did figures from across the political spectrum. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also conveyed his condolences.
Legacy: A Life Lived Differently
Prateek Yadav was not defined by the political dynasty he was born into. He was defined by what he chose to do with the space he carved out for himself — the gyms he built, the animals he fed, the daughters he loved, and the quiet defiance of a man who, when offered power, simply said no.
In a family where ambition runs in the veins and every move is scrutinized, Prateek’s choice to live differently was, in many ways, the bravest choice of all.
He leaves behind his two daughters, Prathama and Katyayani, and a story that is far more complex, far more human, and far more heartbreaking than any political headline could capture.
Prateek Yadav | July 7, 1987 – May 13, 2026
