Recently senior leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui left Congress and joined Samajwadi Party. Everyone’s eyes were on how the Samajwadi Party would benefit from the arrival of such a big leader. Along with this, some other leaders also joined SP, on whom perhaps less people paid attention. Most of them were leaders of Pal caste. This shows that Akhilesh Yadav is once again trying to bring with him such castes which have not traditionally been with SP but are very important in the politics of Uttar Pradesh.
Since being out of power in 2017, Samajwadi Party (SP) has lost the elections twice. There was a lot of hope in 2022 but Akhilesh Yadav once again remained away from power. After this, Akhilesh Yadav changed his strategy and started wooing the Dalits, extremely backward castes as well as those backward class castes which till now had stayed away from SP. The result of this was seen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and Samajwadi Party was successful in winning the maximum number of seats in Uttar Pradesh. This is the reason why Samajwadi Party is now busy in bringing together such castes.
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Who joined Samajwadi Party?
Apart from Naseemuddin Siddiqui, there were many other faces also in this joining which took place on 15th February. This included former MLA Rajkumar Pal from Pratapgarh, former minister Anees Ahmed Khan alias Phool Babu, Dinanath Kushwaha (former MLA Deoria), Danish Khan, who had contested the election from Kannauj on AIMIM ticket, former Legislative Council member Husna Siddiqui, Poonam Pal and Ranjana Pal.
Among these, Rajkumar Pal is the person who was first close to BJP, then became MLA for the first time by contesting elections on Apna Dal (Sonelal) ticket. He was also made the state president of Apna Dal (Sonelal) but later he resigned from the party blaming Ashish Patel.
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Where is Akhilesh Yadav’s focus?
Actually, the joining of such leaders is indicating that under his PDA formula, Akhilesh Yadav is trying to bring together all those castes who are feeling neglected and there is a big leader to take care of them. This is the reason why Akhilesh had alleged that votes of Pal, Baghel, Rathod and Maurya castes are being deliberately cut to benefit BJP in UP.
According to estimates, more than 40 percent of the backward class voters in Uttar Pradesh are non-Yadavs. These voters do not favor any one party. Yes, in the last few years, Anupriya Patel has been more or less successful in bringing Kurmi voters in favor of NDA. However, this equation was also seen breaking in the elections of 2022 and 2024.
There are more than 75 OBC castes in the state. Most of them are Yadavs and then there are Kurmis. However, SP is instead eyeing such vote banks which do not act as vote banks of any one party. Under this plan, Akhilesh Yadav’s focus is on shepherd-pal voters. People of this caste, comprising about 3 percent of the population, do not seem to play a decisive role but can definitely reduce the difference between victory and defeat in many seats.
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There are many seats in Bareilly, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Hathras, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli and Bundelkhand where the population of Pal caste people is between 5 to 10 thousand. In such a situation, if these voters come with SP, then Akhilesh Yadav can get help on those seats where he had to face defeat by a small margin.
Lesson learned from Paasi formula?
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav had tasted success in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Then Akhilesh Yadav had not given ticket to even a single Yadav except five members of his family. Then he had distributed tickets to castes like Pasi, Kurmi, Kushwaha. One fourth of the Samajwadi Party candidates were those who had previously been BSP. Akhilesh Yadav could also see the effect of this strategy. A total of 8 Pasi MPs were elected from UP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, most of which were from Samajwadi Party.
Samajwadi Party had given tickets to a total of 17 Dalits, out of which 8 won. Similarly, 10 Kurmis were given tickets and 7 won. Bhumihar, Rajbhar, Lodhi and Bind-Nishad were also successful in winning on SP ticket. In such a situation, Akhilesh Yadav is now busy in winning many other castes into his fold.
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