Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav at the Parliament House complex during Monsoon session, in New Delhi, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024.
PTI
New Delhi: "PDA stands for Pichda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak (backward, Dalits and minorities)," Akhilesh Yadav explained to a motley group of journalists at the Samajwadi Party headquarters in Lucknow. The former chief minister had taken a day's break from the protracted campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Straightening the bow of the inverted boat-shaped red cap perched precariously on his head, Akhilesh took a pregnant pause. "'A' also includes Agada (upper castes)," Yadav added as an afterthought, expanding the scope of the newly minted social acronym.
As the results show, the PDA formula catapulted the SP-Congress alliance to 43 seats leaving a gaping hole in the BJP's overall tally in the 18th Lok Sabha. Now as he prepares for the next big battle, the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Akhilesh has started moving another set of pieces on the political chess board. He is aiming to woo a section of the upper castes, especially the Brahmins, who have been with the BJP after the Congress' downfall and Mandal-Mandir rupture in the heartland politics since 1989.
Last month, the SP chief sprung the first surprise by nominating his successor for the post of leader of the opposition in the state assembly. By choosing Mata Prasad Pandey, a seven-time veteran MLA and twice speaker of the state assembly, Akhilesh has put the cat among the pigeons.
Pandey has been a close associate of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and remains the most credible Brahmin face of the party. And in appointing Pandey, Akhilesh seems to have made a decisive move to wean away the Brahmin segment of BJP’s core upper caste vote base.
Wading into Yogi’s territory
In yet another strategic move, Akhilesh announced last week that he would attend the birth anniversary of Harishankar Tiwari, a don-turned-politician who had projected himself as the messiah of Brahmins in eastern UP, which is known for Brahmin-Rajput rivalry.
The region, especially Gorakhpur, is the backyard of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath, a Rajput.
"In the 1980s, Congress chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh, also from the Rajput community, got the Gangster Act passed in the state assembly. Tiwari was incarcerated under the Act," says senior journalist VN Bhatt explaining what lies at the crux of the rivalry between the two communities in east-UP.
A seven-time MLA and former minister, Tiwari passed away last year.
He had started his career as an independent MLA in 1980 and remained a recluse all his life even when he was a minister in BJP governments. Even though he was an independent legislator, Tiwari continued to expand his influence among his community in Poorvanchal.
As Congress' influence waned after 1989, and with the rise of the BJP, the Gorakhnath Math led by Mahant Avaidyanath, Adityanath’s predecessor, became the center of saffron politics. The Math has for three generations been led by Rajputs from Uttarakhand.
Consequently, in the upper-caste politics of eastern UP, a new faultline emerged between Tiwari’s 'hata' or premises and the Gorakhnath Math.
The BJP as part of its efforts to consolidate the 'Hindu votes' has been trying to paper over these cracks over the last three decades or more. But whenever the schism widens, as in 2007 when Mayawati wooed the Brahmins, the BJP has had to suffer electoral reverses.
It is in these waters that Akhilesh is trying to cast his net wide ahead of the 2027 polls.
Though the BJP has always tried to maintain caste equilibrium by appointing a Brahmin deputy CM under Yogi Adityanath, the party has not been able to project a prominent pan-state caste leader after Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Kalraj Mishra.
The Brahmin community makes up almost 10% of the population in central and eastern UP.
Last week, when the district administration demolished a platform being built to install Harishankar Tiwari’s statue in his native village Tada, Akhilesh was quick to respond.
In a message posted on the microblogging site X, the SP chief accused "BJP bulldozers" of "rolling over the respect of the dead". The party also raised the issue in the state assembly.
Daunting task
In his attempts to expand the definition of PDA, Akhilesh Yadav may have to do a tightrope walk.
Having sharpened the contours of identity politics through issues like caste census, the former CM will face challenges in pursuing 'inclusive politics' even though he built a rainbow social coalition of backward, Dalits and Muslims during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Akhilesh's attempt to court the Brahmins also alludes to yet another aspect of state politics: Congress' attempts to find its feet after more than 35 years of exile.
The grand old party, under Rahul Gandhi, has projected itself as the most credible alternative to the BJP at the national level. It has tried to make a sustained effort to win back the trust of Muslims and Dalits — the two critical components of its erstwhile vote base. The third, Brahmins, remain out of its ambit, for now.
The Congress will be back on its feet if it can revive all three pillars of its winning combination. And that's a prospect that neither suits the SP nor the BJP.