SP propping up Awadhesh Prasad as its Dalit face ahead of LS polls?

LUCKNOW: When Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav decided to allot Ayodhya MLA Awadhesh Prasad a seat next to himself in the state assembly to fill the void left behind by the disqualification of party’s Muslim face Azam Khan, the development went somewhat unnoticed.

Prasad, the nine-time MLA who currently represents Milkipur assembly constituency of Ayodhya, started grabbing eyeballs after Akhilesh and his team took off from Lucknow on March 17 for a three-day visit to Kolkata to attend the party’s national executive meeting.

When Akhilesh tweeted a selfie with Awadhesh Prasad and Shivpal Yadav onboard the flight to Kolkata, the Milkipur MLA’s presence made many political observers to take note of his growing stature in the party.

The same evening, Akhilesh called on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at her residence where he was accompanied by Awadhesh Prasad, Shivpal Yadav and SP national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda.

During both the sessions of the party’s national executive on March 18 and 19, Prasad was allotted a seat next to Akhilesh.

Having been associated with SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav since 1977, Awadhesh Prasad, a Pasi leader who was appointed as the general secretary of the national executive in January, is now being seen as the party’s Dalit face.

His rising stature in SP is being seen as Akhilesh’s attempt to send across the message that the party is willing to give a special status to Dalits – who were till now seen as a dedicated and exclusive voter base of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Awadhesh’s elevation in the party is neither sudden nor inexplicable. Despite being a hardcore Mulayam loyalist since the inception of the party, he was one of the select few veterans who opted to side with Akhilesh during the battle of supremacy within the Yadav clan in the run up to the 2017 assembly elections.

It was during this time that Akhilesh got an SP ticket for Awadhesh’s son Ajit Prasad from Jagdishpur assembly constituency in Amethi for the 2017 polls which was later cancelled by Mulayam, allegedly at the behest of Shivpal.

Political observers are of the view that Akhilesh has decided to bring Awadhesh Prasad in the limelight as a part of the party’s Dalit outreach ahead of the 2024 polls. The party has been focusing on connecting to Dalits as much as possible in case the community decides to drop off the BSP bandwagon with party’s dwindling political fortunes in the state and national elections.

The party had floated Babasaheb Vahini on Ambedkar Jayanti in 2021 and is now working strategically towards attracting the attention of Dalits in general, and Pasi community in particular, which plays a crucial role in elections in several districts of Purvanchal and Bundelkhand.

Courtesy : TOI

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