Swami Prasad’s exit widens chink in Akhilesh’s PDA armour
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had been trying to add and expand non-Yadav OBC and Dalit base to the party’s original Muslim-Yadav support base in U.P. since 2022
The chink in the PDA (Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) armour of the Samajwadi Party (SP) widened when OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the party’s primary membership and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on Tuesday—a week after he quit the party’s national general secretary post on February 13.
The term PDA, which is the SP’s strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has been coined by party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhyak or backwards, Dalits and minorities (especially Muslims) are the three communities which together comprise over 80% of U.P.’s population.
Maurya’s exit comes in quick succession recently as well as protracted erosion of non-Yadav OBC leaders after 2022 U.P. assembly polls. There’s also a growing disquiet in some Muslim leaders within the SP. Akhilesh had been trying to add and expand non-Yadav OBC and Dalit base to the party’s original Muslim-Yadav support base in the state since 2022.
He had roped in the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Apna Dal (K) before the 2022 UP polls. Led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, the SBSP is Rajbhar (OBC) based party while the Apna Dal (K) is Patel (OBC) based party. Akhilesh had also taken into the SP fold Dara Singh Chauhan (a Nonia--another OBC caste). However, soon after the 2022 polls, Rajbhar snapped ties with the SP and subsequently joined the BJP-led NDA.
Chauhan too returned to the BJP. Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi Patel (who is an SP MLA) also rebelled last week over “neglecting the PDA and preferring upper caste (actor Jaya Bachchan and ex-bureaucrat Alok Ranjan)” while fielding candidates for the ensuing Rajya Sabha polls.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Jat (OBC) support base party, too has severed its ties with the SP and joined the BJP camp. Thus the OBC support base that Akhilesh had created from west UP to east UP has eroded to a great extent.
The alliance with Jayat Chaudhary, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Apna Dal (K) and induction of Swami Prasad Maurya or Dara Singh Chauhan—the combination of non-Yadav OBC leaders—were an important factor in helping the SP take its 2017 U.P. assembly tally of 47 to 111 in 2022.
As if that were not enough, some Muslim leaders are making murmurs of dissatisfaction over SP’s “ignoring of Muslims”. Last week, former Badaun MP and ex-Union minister Salim Sherwani also resigned from the post of party’s national general secretary just and charged Akhilesh Yadav with overlooking PDA in Rajya Sabha candidature. He had said that he will take next course of action after consulting his supporters.
Swami Prasad Maurya was the SP’s answer to the BJP’s Keshav Prasad Maurya. But now Swami Prasad’s exit has blunted the SP’s PDA edge further overnight. Swami Prasad Maurya, who joined the SP in January 2022, left the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of that year’s assembly elections.
He has been repeatedly making headlines for his provocative comments on sensitive issues, including Ramcharitmanas and Sanatan Dharma, within the Hindu religion.
Following Maurya’s frequent remarks, SP MLA Manoj Pandey, former Ayodhya MLA Pawan Pandey and Gauriganj (Amethi) MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh had openly declared war on Maurya and mounted pressure on Akhilesh to act against him. Akhilesh neither checked Swami Prasad Maurya nor his upper caste leaders.
