New Delhi: For Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, expanding his vote bank target appears to be the larger aim ahead of next year’s crucial Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, where he is, quite innovatively, revisiting the acronym PDA regularly to include as many categories as possible, while playing the Hindu card, though softly.
“MY” or Muslim-Yadav remained the SP’s vote base through decades, and the party successfully rode on its combined might till some among the Yadavs alleged the party was apparently tilting towards Muslims. A considerable part of the SP’s “Y” base thus reportedly shifted its allegiance towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while the “M” factor was explored and exploited by other political parties.
Now, in an apparent bid to woo Hindu votes too, Yadav has reportedly been invoking verses from Hanuman Chalisa at “Bada Mangal” events. Bada Mangal is celebrated mainly in eastern Uttar Pradesh by devotees worshipping Sankat Mochan Hanuman on all Tuesdays of Jeth or Jyestha (May-June).
Reports have cited this as the SP chief’s attempt to project himself as rooted in Sanatan Dharma traditions.
Political observers find this to be a “soft Hindutva” strategy, with a cultural assertion aimed at reassuring Hindu voters while retaining the party’s core PDA base. The broader goal is to deny the BJP an opportunity for counter-polarisation in 2027, they stressed.
Yadav is also said to have pitched himself as a “neo-socialist” who consults priests and astrologers before taking major decisions.
Meanwhile, PDA, which was said to stand for “pichhda” (backwards), Dalit, and “alpashankhak” (minority) when he coined it three years ago, has undergone several augmentations as the state election draws near. In 2025, in what was widely seen as an attempt to rework his electoral strategy in Uttar Pradesh after the Opposition “Mahagathbandhan” platform’s dismal performance in Bihar assembly polls, Yadav replaced the “A” with “aadhi aabadi”, for women.
Incidentally, a large part of women voters was then seen to have supported the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), mainly due to the coalition’s support for their cause. However, many had then also construed it as an attempt to shun the SP’s pro-Muslim image. And in the last few months, alpashankhak seems to be back in vogue. Lately, it is the first letter of the acronym that finds expansion in a new form, in reflection of Yadav’s new pursuit to attempt wooing the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh.
“Pichhda”, as he originally coined for “P” earlier, now also stands for “pandits” (used for Brahmins), announced Yadav when addressing a “Brahmin Sammelan” organised at the SP state headquarters in Lucknow earlier this month.
Brahmins, a politically influential community in the state, comprise some nine to ten per cent of Uttar Pradesh population, according to estimates based on 2011 census. Among others, Dalits constitute over 21 per cent; Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute over half of Uttar Pradesh’s population, where Yadavs form the single largest group amongst them at around 40 per cent, and are around 19 per cent of the state’s total population.
As per the last census conducted, religion-wise, Hindus comprised close to 80 per cent of the state’s population, while Muslim, over 19 per cent.
Yadav’s new overture is being described as the SP’s attempt to extend a hand to Uttar Pradesh’s Brahmins following the BJP’s loss in the Assembly bypolls in Bihar’s Bankipur and Madhya Pradesh’s Datia, which is being cited as an erosion in the BJP’s upper-caste support.
Yadav has, meanwhile, also stepped up protests on the alleged embezzlement of donations from the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya. Incidentally, it was Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who is credited with engineering a Dalit-Brahmin bank, that had secured her a simple majority in 2007.
