Akhilesh Yadav, the Ambedkarite – The Hindu

During the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Dalit bangle makers in Firozabad, a traditional bastion of the Samajwadi Party (SP), said that they trusted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) more because they had suffered at the hands of the Yadavs. “During SP rule, our women were forcibly denied ration shop queues. It was much like how our leader (Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati) was assaulted by SP goons in the State guest house (in 1995),” said an artisan. The distrust was deep despite the SP and the BSP having come together for the 2019 general elections.

Cut to November 2024. Ahead of the bypolls, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav addressed rallies in western U.P. In each rally, he would underline his Other Backward Classes (OBC) identity. He would mention how after he lost power in 2017 and vacated the official residence of the Chief Minister in Lucknow, the BJP cleansed the premises with Gangajal as an act of purification. He would then speak about the Kannauj incident in 2024 where BJP workers washed the precincts of a temple after he visited it to offer prayers during his Lok Sabha election campaign. By narrating these incidents, Mr. Yadav would align his identity with the Dalits, who have historically been treated as “impure” by the so-called upper castes.

Recently, Mr. Yadav raised his voice against the assault of two Yadav priests in Etawah, another SP stronghold. The BJP accused him of giving the incident a casteist spin. However, it was this tweak in his politics that won him 43 seats alongside the Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Political analysts say that the change in Mr. Yadav’s world view was evident from 2018 when B.R. Ambedkar prominently appeared in the party’s poll literature. Soon after, a bust of Ambedkar appeared at the party office in Lucknow, and Babasahib Vahini, a party-affiliated outfit, was formed to reach out to Dalits. This crystallised into the PDA (a Hindi acronym for backwards, Dalits, and minorities) formula that has been paying electoral dividends. The order of groups may be different, but this is not significantly different from Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan (majority people) politics and differs from Ms. Mayawati’s focus on Sarvajan (all people) politics.

This strategy reflected in ticket distribution in 2024. The party shed its Muslim-Yadav tag while selecting candidates and successfully played the Dalit and OBC card. By focusing on Kurmi, Shakya, Maurya, and Nishad candidates and fielding two Dalits from general seats, Mr. Yadav disturbed the caste calculus of the BJP. That the desertion of established caste leaders such as Swami Prasad Maurya did not impact the party’s performance indicates that the most backward communities believed in Mr. Yadav.

Political observers say that with the BSP losing direction, Mr. Yadav is aiming to replace Ms. Mayawati in the Dalit mind. A party insider says that after the election results, when people saw that ‘judenge toh jeetenge (united we win)’ was possible, they wouldn’t buy the slogan of the BJP, ‘batoge toh katoge (divided you will fall)’. Instead of hitting the streets, Mr. Yadav has motivated the cadre to hold PDA panchayats in villages across the State to highlight the strength of unity and the failure of the ‘double engine’ BJP government. “We are trying to drill the idea that the ideologies of Ram Manohar Lohia and Ambedkar can fulfil the dreams of the country and of our ancestors,” said a senior party member.

Mr. Yadav is often poetic in Parliament when he criticises the government about the Waqf Act or the deaths at the Kumbh Mela. However, he lets his displeasure be known when journalists try to corner him as a dynast or a privileged politician and accuses them of being soft on the government.

With the family feud settled in his favour, one of the most significant changes in Mr. Yadav’s public behaviour is that he no longer gives the impression of being an insecure politician. Despite unsavoury statements made by some Congress leaders from U.P., Mr. Yadav remains committed to the INDIA bloc. With Azam Khan out of the picture, the partnership with the Congress helps him outsource Muslim issues to the grand old party.

A section of young leaders in the SP feels that with the polls only 18 months away, Mr. Yadav should launch a padayatra like Rahul Gandhi did. They fear that without the active participation of grassroots leaders, PDA meetings could just become photo ops.