Divorce Threat, Deleted Posts, Sudden Death: Spotlight On Aparna And Prateek Yadav's Marriage

Aparna Yadav is at the centre of another personal storm. Her husband Prateek Yadav, the younger son of the late Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, died suddenly on Wednesday at 38, under circumstances that are yet to be explained. Months earlier, he had publicly accused her of destroying his family and threatened divorce. Now a widow at 37, Aparna’s 15-year marriage, her political future, and her place in the Yadav clan are all under public scrutiny.

From Aparna Bisht To Aparna Yadav

Aparna Bisht was born into a Thakur-Bisht family on January 1, 1990, in what is now Uttarakhand. She studied at Lucknow’s City Montessori School, the same school her late husband attended, and went on to earn a Master’s degree in International Relations and Politics from the University

of Manchester, UK. She is also a trained classical singer.

In 2011, she married Prateek Yadav and became the younger daughter-in-law of the Yadav family, long regarded as Uttar Pradesh’s most powerful political dynasty, one that has produced two chief ministers.

For years after her marriage, she stayed out of the political spotlight, focusing instead on animal welfare, an interest she shared with her husband.

Political Entry And Split From SP

That changed in 2017, when Aparna broke from her husband’s quiet life and entered politics, joining the family-run Samajwadi Party. She contested the UP assembly elections that year from the Lucknow Cantonment seat, but lost.

Her entry into politics came at a turbulent moment for the Yadavs. The family was in the middle of a bitter internal, yet public, feud, and both Aparna and her mother-in-law Sadhna Yadav, the stepmother of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, were accused of deepening the rift for personal political gain.

In January 2022, Aparna made a sharper break, leaving the SP to join the BJP. She cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s women-centric policies as her reason. Since then, she has been an outspoken critic of her former party. She currently serves as vice chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Women, a position she took up in September 2024.

‘Family Destroyer’

In January this year, Prateek Yadav took to his verified Instagram account with a series of posts that were startling in their directness. He called Aparna a “family destroyer” and accused her of being driven entirely by a hunger for fame and influence.

“I am going to divorce this selfish woman as soon as possible. She ruined my family ties… All she wants to become is famous and influential,” he wrote in one post.

He also spoke of his own mental health, saying she had no concern for what he was going through. “Right now I am in a very bad mental health condition and she doesn’t bother. Because it’s only herself she bothers about. I have never seen such a bad soul,” he wrote.

In another post, he alleged she had severed his ties with everyone he was close to. “Broke my relationship with my mother, broke my relationship with my father, broke my relationship with my brother. Wants to be only famous,” he wrote, also calling her the “biggest liar” and “most self-interested person” he had ever known.

What triggered the posts was never established. Neither the SP nor the BJP commented on the matter at the time.

But the storm appeared to pass. In the months that followed, the couple was seen together in photographs they shared on social media — smiling, apparently at ease. The earlier posts were quietly deleted.

Aparna Yadav’s Future

Now Aparna Yadav faces another storm and increased public scrutiny at a time of intense personal grief. Prateek Yadav’s sudden death leaves behind more questions than answers — about what happened, about a marriage that seemed to be repairing, and about Aparna’s future within one of India’s most fractious political families.