Pichde, Dalit & Alpasankhyak: In UP, Akhilesh Yadav pins hopes on 'PDA' combination to counter NDA

Lucknow: Nurturing dreams to counter the saffron push in politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) -- BJP’s main rival in the state -- is confident that its slogan of ‘PDP’ (Pichde (backward classes), Dalit and Alpasankhyak (minorities)) coupled with its alliance with the Congress will deliver in the state in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Although the past alliances with the Congress and the BSP and some other predominantly caste-based outfits have not been electorally beneficial for the SP, party president Akhilesh Yadav remains hopeful, despite the fact that all alliance partners barring the Congress have deserted him this time.

While the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RL)D have joined the NDA, the BSP, Mahan Dal and the AD(K) have decided to go solo this time around.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led party had secured 32.06 per cent votes in the state assembly elections, held two year back, when it contested the polls in alliance with the RLD and SBSP. It was a sharp increase from the 21.82 per cent it had secured in the 2017 assembly elections which it had contested in alliance with the Congress.

In fact, Akhilesh felt so confident that he did not make any attempt to placate the Apna Dal (K), a predominantly ‘Kurmi’ outfit having considerable influence over the community voters which were in sizable strength in over a dozen LS constituencies especially in the eastern region of the state.

The SP had offered one LS seat to AD (K) but the latter was not ready to accept less than three seats. Now the AD (K) plans to contest around a dozen seats, including  Pratapgarh, Mirzapur, Kaushmabi, Banda, Bhadohi, Phulpur and some others where there were a large number of Kurmi voters.

Apparently, Akhilesh feels that AD(K) will only hurt the NDA prospects by weaning away a section of Kurmi voters.

‘’We are aiming to secure in excess of 40 per cent votes this time…..BJP will suffer a serious setback if that happens,’’ said a senior SP leader here while speaking to DH.

The leader elaborated by saying that the party only needed to secure an extra five per cent voter share. He added the 2.33 per cent votes polled by the Congress in the 2022 assembly polls in the state.

He further said that the BSP too had a vote share of around 13 per cent in the state.

The SP would also go all out to ensure that its Muslim vote bank remained intact and that the BSP’s Muslim candidates were not able to make any dent into the same.

Akhilesh made it sure by roping in senior BSP leader Guddu Jamali, who had heavily dented the Muslim vote bank of the SP in the Azamgarh LS by-poll resulting in the defeat of the SP nominee.  

It remains to be seen if the SP’s PDP formula yields electoral dividends in the Lok Sabha polls.