With just days to go before Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14, the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a fierce churn over Dalit vote consolidation. The Samajwadi Party (SP), under the aggressive leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, is fast recalibrating its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) formula. In a symbolic yet strategic move, the SP is likely to induct former BSP stalwart and three-time MLA Daddu Prasad into its ranks today, a development poised to shake the core of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Akhilesh Yadav has convened a press conference at 1 PM at the SP headquarters, where Daddu Prasad — once a cabinet minister in Mayawati’s government — is expected to join hands with SP along with his supporters. Sources suggest this is not an isolated move but part of a broader strategy to bleed the BSP of its influential second-rung leaders and stake serious claim over the Dalit electorate, which has long remained Mayawati’s stronghold.
The timing is no coincidence. From April 8 onwards, the SP has launched a door-to-door campaign dedicated to Ambedkar’s legacy. Akhilesh is banking heavily on symbolism and direct outreach to carve into BSP’s support base, asserting that his PDA formula is not just electoral arithmetic but social empowerment.
Observers believe Akhilesh’s targeted move to bring in Daddu Prasad — a known face among Dalits and once part of Mayawati’s core team — signals a bold attempt to project SP as the new political home for Bahujans. The PDA campaign now appears to be pivoting around Dalit visibility, with whispers that more ex-BSP leaders may jump ship in coming weeks as SP ramps up its Mission-2027 preparations.
Unfazed but watchful, BSP supremo Mayawati has launched a scathing rebuttal of the SP’s newfound Dalit outreach. In a pointed press conference, she paid tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar and reminded the public that the BSP, founded by Kanshi Ram on April 14, 1984, was the only party genuinely committed to Ambedkarite values. “The casteist mentality is trying to distort Ambedkar’s message,” she said, in an indirect attack on both SP and BJP.
On social media platform X, Mayawati, recalling her own tenure, she stated that when BSP was in power, “new districts, tehsils, hospitals and universities were built — but names were never changed. Let other governments learn from this.”
1. यूपी की रही सपा सरकार की तरह ही महाराष्ट्र, उत्तराखण्ड व यूपी आदि भाजपा सरकार द्वारा जिला, शहरों व संस्थानों आदि के नामों को बदलने की प्रवृति कानून के राज का गवरनेन्स नहीं बल्कि द्वेष व भेदभाव के आधार पर अपनी विफलताओं पर पर्दा डालने की अति चिन्तनीय संकीर्ण राजनीति।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 1, 2025
Mayawati also waded into national controversies. She supported stringent action against terrorists, urging all governments to “shed political interests and act legally and firmly under Indian law.”
2. जबकि सन 1995 के अविभाजित उत्तर प्रदेश से लेकर सन 2012 तक बीएसपी की चार बार रही सरकारों में गुड गवरनेन्स को ध्यान में रखकर अनेकों नई कल्याणकारी योजनाएं व जिले, तहसील, अस्पताल, यूनिवर्सिटी आदि नए नामों से बनाए गए, किसी का नाम नहीं बदला गया। सरकारों को इससे ज़रूर सीख लेनी चाहिए।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 1, 2025
Taking a swipe at all major parties, including Congress, and SP, she stated: “From awarding Bharat Ratna to Baba Saheb to dealing with his crores of followers, their attitude has always been casteist and anti-Bahujan. BSP was created to break these shackles. Today, politics of deceit is being played in the name of Dalit votes.”
