P in PDA is Pandit, says Akhilesh. Why M-Y-dependent SP is courting Brahmins in UP

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has expanded his PDA formula to include "Pandit", in a bid to broaden its voter base beyond Muslims and Yadavs. The SP's bid to woo Brahmins could alter electoral equations in UP even as "upper castes" protest against the caste-based reservation system.

Flanked by people dressed as Lord Hanuman and Sugreev, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav gave his party's signature PDA (Pichhde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) formula a new meaning. Addressing a Brahmin Sammelan in Lucknow earlier this week, Akhilesh declared that the "P" in the PDA also stood for Pandit, and accused the BJP government of targeting Brahmins. This was perhaps the clearest signal yet that the SP, long identified with its Muslim-Yadav (M-Y) social base, was angling for one of the BJP's most loyal vote banks.

The pitch made on August 5 is anything from random. It comes amid Akhilesh's wider embrace of temple politics, meetings with seers, criticism of the alleged Ram Mandir donation theft issue, repeated invocations of Sanatana Dharma and construction of the Kedareshwar Mahadev Temple in Etawah, the Yadav family's bastion.

So, with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election just months away, the outreach of the SP, a party built on "backward classes" politics, is now investing so heavily in Brahmins. Central to the SP's recalibration is UP's caste arithmetic, the way they've swung, the decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the BJP's political dominance over the past decade.

Rather than ceding the Hindutva narrative to the BJP, Akhilesh appears determined to fight the election on the common ideological turf.

While Akhilesh's push comes ahead of the UP Assembly elections, it also coincides with a renewed online and street campaign against caste-based reservation weeks after the CJP-led student protests forced Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. At least four states have witnessed protests in the last few weeks, with UP's capital Lucknow among the cities where at least two "savarna" organisations took to the streets. In Rajasthan, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena warned that it would not support the BJP in the upcoming local body elections. These developments could carry implications for the high-stakes UP Assembly polls.

Before we delve deeper into the analysis, here's a quick look at what Akhilesh said and his other moves to woo Hindus, which the experts say is his embrace of soft Hindutva.

FROM M-Y TO PDA, AND TO PDA WITH PANDIT

The Samajwadi Party's political identity has, since the years of its founder Mulayam Singh, rested on the Muslim-Yadav coalition, popularly called the M-Y formula. Over the past few years, however, Akhilesh Yadav has attempted to broaden that base through the PDA plank — Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak.

On Wednesday, he expanded that formula. Addressing a gathering organised on the birth anniversary of former union minister and socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra, Akhilesh said people had forgotten that the "P" in PDA also stood for "Pandit".

"People keep talking about PDA and inventing new definitions of it. Ever since they [BJP] lost to PDA, they have been trying to redefine it. But they have forgotten that the 'PD' in PDA also stands for Pandit. The more they inflict pain (peeda), the stronger PDA will become," Akhilesh said.

The SP chief also accused the BJP government of targeting Brahmins, opposition workers and religious leaders, including Jyotish Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwarananda. The seer and UP CM Yogi Adityanath had been locked in a high-profile public confrontation during the Prayagraj Magh Mela, with the state government challenging his authority and restricting his participation in rituals.

Therefore, the symbolism at the August 5 event of Akhilesh reflected the outreach of the Brahmins. The veteran leaders shared the stage. Young ones stood nearby. Akhilesh held a trishul (trident). Shiva Tandava Stotram was recited, damrus were played, and Janeshwar Mishra (popularly known as "Chhote Lohia") remained the ideological anchor of the programme as it should have, given it was the socialist veteran's birth anniversary.

DO BRAHMINS MATTER ELECTORALLY IN UP? AKHILESH SEEMS TO BE TAKING NOTE

The timing of the Brahmin outreach by the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav is important. Unlike neighbouring Bihar, where Brahmins constitute roughly 3.5% of the population, estimates place them at around 8% of Uttar Pradesh's electorate. This might appear to be a small difference on paper, but electorally it is enormous and impactful in several seats. Some estimates say that the community is around 12% of the state's voters.

Brahmin voters can influence outcomes in nearly 100 of the 403 Assembly constituencies in UP, according to a report in The Indian Express from 2020.

With elections often decided by narrow margins, even a modest shift in Brahmin voting behaviour could alter the electoral outcomes.

The SP's Brahmin outreach might be new, but it's only the latest chapter in a larger political repositioning. It's now speaking of the Sanatana, wooing the Hindus, which experts say, is the party's bid to expand its appeal beyond the MY and the PDA.

Over the past several months, Akhilesh has consciously embraced Hindu religious symbolism rarely associated with the SP during the Mulayam Singh Yadav era.

Akhilesh has publicly recited verses from the Hanuman Chalisa, spoken about astrology, joked that he now consults priests before important decisions, supported Avimukteshwarananda during his dispute with the UP government and planned a PDA Rath Yatra covering religious sites like Ayodhya and Mathura.

Also, Akhilesh was the first Opposition leader who raised the alleged donation theft at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir as an issue of accountability. He said that the donation row had "embarrassed followers of Sanatana Dharma across the world".

These messages show what Akhilesh wants and that the SP no longer wants to be portrayed as uncomfortable with Hindu symbolism. It wants Hindu votes, and the most hardcore of them. Next, we'll have a quick look at how the Brahmins of UP traditionally voted.

DID BSP'S DECLINE CHANGE EQUATION FOR UP'S BRAHMINS?

For years, Brahmins were not exclusively aligned with the BJP in UP.

Often portrayed as a Dalit-only party, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has successfully crafted its famous Dalit-Brahmin social engineering experiment. She also appointed Satish Chandra Mishra, a prominent Brahmin lawyer, as the party's General Secretary, who helped the BSP win a full majority in the 2007 UP Assembly elections.

Then, Mayawati had raised the slogan "Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay" (for the welfare and happiness of all), instead of the popular "Bahujan Sukhay".

The BSP in 2007 clinched an absolute majority in the UP Assembly with more than 30% vote share, again driven by a broad social coalition under Ambedkarite ideals. However, after 2012, the party's graph went into free fall.

But Uttar Pradesh politics has changed since Mayawati went out of power. As the BSP steadily declined over the past decade, its upper-caste support fragmented. A substantial section shifted towards the BJP, while smaller sections gravitated towards the Samajwadi Party and the Congress.

Now, with discontent simmering among sections of the "upper castes" and the reservation debate hotting up, the SP sees a potential opening to woo Brahmin voters ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. But can it convert this moment into votes, and if so, to what extent? Akhilesh Yadav attempted a similar outreach before the 2022 Assembly polls, undertaking what The Times of India described as a "temple run" across eastern Uttar Pradesh. The strategy, however, failed to significantly alter the electoral outcome. Whether the current climate produces a different result in the SP's favour remains one of the key questions heading into the 2027 contest.

- Ends