'Pichle, Dalit, Alpsankhyak' will defeat NDA in 2024, Opposition need big heart for alliance: Akhilesh Yadav

Opposition need to support Samajwadi Party as they have a sense of responsibility if they are against BJP, Akhilesh said

With Lok Sabha elections barely a year away, there has been much talk of Opposition unity with chiefs of political parties rallying support against the Narendra Modi-led BJP. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a recent interview to NDTV has said that if opposition parties support SP wholeheartedly, the BJP can be defeated in Uttar Pradesh with them losing all 80 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Akhilesh was speaking at an event organised by the media group.

Answering a question as to what will be Samajwadi Party's big game plan to defeat the BJP, the party supremo said that his formula would be PDA- Pichle, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (backward classes, dalits and minorities) who will defeat the NDA.

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Last week, Akhilesh gave a new slogan '80 harao, BJP hatao' (defeat 80, remove BJP), implying that if the saffron party has to be removed in 2024, it has to be defeated in all Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

He had also targeted the Yogi Adityanath government, saying the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh is "becoming worse".

Akhilesh reiterated that in order for the Opposition to defeat the BJP, the other parties need to support SP as they have a sense of responsibility if they are against the saffron party.

Speaking of alliances with other parties, Akhilesh said the party's tie-ups with Congress, BSP and other smaller parties were made on the basis of hope but what is also needed is a 'big heart', which he said SP has shown.

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Akhilesh was also questioned on BSP chief Mayawati's allegations that after the alliance between them ended, there was no vote transfer from his party. "Data and arithmetic are there for all to see. The Samajwadi Party supported the Bahujan Samaj Party with honesty and a big heart because we believe in Dr. B R Ambedkar's dream. The result of this was that while no one else could defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, they lost the maximum number of seats in Uttar Pradesh," he was quoted as saying.

Akhilesh's comments on the BSP come at a time when the party is trying to break into BSP's vote share by wooing the Dalits. Earlier in April, the SP chief unveiled a statue of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram at a function in Rae Bareli on April 3.

SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya had said, "The BSP today has strayed away from the path shown by its founder Kanshi Ram and Babasaheb Ambedkar. There is an urgent need for the followers of Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav to join hands once again for nation-building."

There seems to be some semblance of common ground in the Opposition as the parties are expected to attempt a roadmap for deliberations for states to find convergence at the local level in unitedly taking on the BJP in the 2024 elections during their first meeting in Patna on June 23.