Akhilesh Yadav's 'PDA' tweet signals new twist in rift with INDIA ally Congress
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav shared a party worker's post with the latter's back painted red and green, and carrying a message in Hindi about the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"Mission 2024. May Netaji (late Mulayam Singh Yadav) remain immortal. 'PDA' will ensure Akhilesh Yadav wins the election this time. Akhilesh Yadav will ensure the poor get justice," the message on the back of the SP worker read.
Yadav shared the photo with the caption, "The 2024 polls will be [the] PDA's revolution."
The 'PDA' translates to 'Pichada (backwards), Dalits and Alpasankhyaks (minorities)', and the SP supremo has reiterated that his party's strategy is to focus on them and that the PDA will defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Yadav's PDA reference came for the second consecutive day as he mentioned it on Saturday as well, while attending a public awareness campaign in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh said the PDA was formed "first and the INDIA alliance was formed later on" and that while the grand Opposition alliance remains, the SP's "strategy is of PDA", news agency ANI reported.
Cracks in SP-Congress relation
The relation between the SP and the Congress party has been strained lately, with Yadav being dissatisfied over the failure to achieve a seat-sharing strategy for the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. The SP was hoping to strike up an alliance to topple the BJP government in the state. However, nothing of that sort has happened and now, Yadav has deemed it to be a "betrayal" and has been attacking his INDIA ally publicly.
On Saturday, the SP chief said that the Congress party should inform his side "straight that they don't need Samajwadis", news agency PTI quoted him as saying. "I promise you that we will not talk about alliance even once and will begin preparation to defeat the BJP on our own," he said, adding that Congress should refrain from conspiring and betraying the SP.
Yadav also responded to former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath's 'Akhilesh Vakhilesh' remark, sarcastically saying that the latter's name carries Kamal (lotus - the official symbol of BJP).
The continuing tension between the SP and Congress poses scepticism regarding the INDIA bloc's future, months before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, the SP announced its third list of two candidates on Thursday (October 19), and has so far announced 33 names for the November 17 polls to the 230-member assembly in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress has announced its candidates for 229 seats.
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