In Akhilesh’s new PDA push, SP focuses on Babasaheb, Samvidhan to woo Dalits

Eyeing 2027 UP polls, SP launches a ‘PDA Charcha’ campaign, now deferred due to “cold weather”, in which it is raking up alleged “insult” of Ambedkar by BJP.

Written by Lalmani Verma

Looking to step up its connect with the backward, Dalit and minority communities, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has launched a month-long “PDA Charcha” programme in Uttar Pradesh.

To reach out especially to Dalits in every Assembly segment across the state in view of the 2027 Assembly elections, the SP has kept its PDA campaign centred on highlighting B R Ambedkar’s legacy with the party leaders, in their speeches, flagging the alleged “insult of the Constitution’s architect by the BJP”.

The SP started the campaign on December 26, which was to continue till January 25. However, after holding the programme for a few days the party has deferred it on account of the “prevailing cold weather”, deciding to resume it from January 27, party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said.

SP sources said the party was facing difficulty in mobilising people, especially in rural belts, due to the cold weather conditions and the peak Rabi season.

The PDA is a slogan SP president Akhilesh Yadav had formulated ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in a bid to expand his party’s vote base from its traditional “M-Y” or Muslim-Yadav to “PDA” or “Pichde (backward classes or OBCs), Dalits, Alpasankhyak (minorities)”.

The PDA plank fuelled the SP’s surge in the Lok Sabha polls, in which the party got the better of the ruling BJP, bagging 37 seats with its INDIA bloc partner Congress getting six out of 80 as against the BJP’s 33 seats with its NDA allies Apna Dal (Soneylal) and RLD winning one and two seats respectively.

In its PDA Charcha campaign, the SP leaders would propagate the ideas of Ambedkar and renew the Opposition’s call for “save the Constitution”, the party said. The campaign has been “masterminded” by Akhilesh, party sources said.

The SP has deployed its leaders and functionaries, elected public representatives, including the MLAs and the MPs, and the office-bearers of its wings and frontal organisations to address various campaign-related events involving local public, mainly belonging to OBCs, Dalits and minorities. The upper caste leaders, too, would be invited to address these functions to ensure “their bonding with backwards and Dalits”, the SP said.

Before the party paused the campaign, it had already held multiple meetings in several Assembly seats of over 16 districts including Hardoi, Agra, Kushinagar, Bulandshahr, Kasganj, Etawah, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Badaun, Etah, Shahjahanpur, Mau, Pratapgarh, Aligarh, and Deoria.

At a PDA panchayat held in Hardoi district last week, the SP’s OBC cell state president Rajpal Kashyap highlighted Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remark allegedly “insulting” Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session over which the INDIA alliance created an uproar within and outside Parliament. Shah dismissed their accusation as baseless.

Kashyap told the gathering that only “Babasaheb (Ambedkar)” and the “Samvidhan” (Constitution) can protect the poor, OBCs, Dalits, oppressed, deprived and weaker sections. Keeping the focus on Babasaheb, he also said the SP follows the principles of “Dr Lohia, Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram (BSP founder) and Janeshwar Misra”.

In Kanpur too, where the PDA Charcha was held in two Assembly constituencies, Ambedkar dominated the discourse. “The main topic of discussion was Ambedkar and his samman (respect). Other PDA issues like caste census and reservation were also taken up. The SP is working for the cause of Babasaheb’s samman,” the SP’s Kanpur district president Fazal Mahmood said.

Similarly, a meeting of the Katheria community (Scheduled Caste) was held in Etawah.

SP insiders said that at the PDA events the party leaders would only target the BJP and steer clear of criticising other rivals like the BSP as the SP believes, they added, that a significant section of Jatavs, the largest Dalit group in UP, has still remained “connected with the Mayawati-led party despite its sharp decline in recent years”.

The SP held PDA Charcha in all the four Assembly seats of Etah last week, ensuring the participation of a sizeable number of Dalits. In the Jatav- dominated Lakhera village there, the SP leaders raked up Shah’s remark on

Ambedkar. “We are keeping the focus on Ambedkar ji ka samman (respect for Ambedkar) and Samvidhan as we sought support from the people for 2027 Assembly polls,” said an SP leader.

The SP-Congress alliance got the backing of a large section of UP’s Dalit voters in the Lok Sabha polls. The SP’s 37 winning candidates include eight Dalit leaders, seven of whom were elected from the SC-reserved constituencies with Awadhesh Prasad clinching the general seat of Faizabad. Among the remaining 29 MPs, 20 are from the OBCs with the rest belonging to upper caste and minority communities.

In the recent UP bypolls to nine Assembly seats, the BJP won seven as against the SP’s two. Of these seats, Khair was the only SC-reserved one, which was retained by the BJP.

“BSP is losing the support of the Dalit community in every election, which backed the INDIA alliance in UP in 2024. If SP does not make efforts to retain the support of Dalits, Congress may take advantage as the SCs had been its voters before BSP was formed. So we are not leaving any Dalit related issue unattended to before 2027 polls. Ambedkar is being spotlighted in these meetings because Union Home Minister’s remark on him is a burning issue and Dalits are emotionally attached to Ambedkar,” said an SP insider.

Kashyap said, “We are focusing on Ambedkar ji because Shah’s remark is a burning issue. But we are also talking about reservation, Constitution, farmers, caste census, and the ideas of Lohia ji and Jayaprakash Narayan ji.”

Courtesy : TIE

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