Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav defended the new social coalition PDA that his party is seeking to forge ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections saying this acronym stands for regaining pride of the marginalised section of society who have been neglected by the ruling class.
Yadav claimed that PDA stands for the unity born out of shared consciousness and feeling against the exploitation and oppression of those who are ‘pichde’ (backward), Dalit, and ‘alpashankhak’ (minority).
He added that people from every class who stand for humanity are involved in this fight against injustice and requested everyone to rise above party politics and join him in this mission.
Yadav’s clarification comes after Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya attacked SP over the PDA formula.
Mayawati in her statement had said that the PDA proposed by the SP to take on the NDA (BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) is nothing more than a rhyme in these most difficult times for them. In a tweet she said: “Akhilesh calls about pichde, dalit and alpsankhyak in this PDA but actually people from these classes must remain vigilant from the canard being spread by the SP leader.” She said that for her PDA actually means Parivar Dal Alliance, due to which this party is limited in selfishness and people of these classes must be careful about them. “We had an alliance with SP but we broke the alliance because of selfish politics of Akhilesh Yadav,” she said and added: “Due to this mindset, SP votes did not shift to BSP while we were able to shift our votes to SP.”