Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav. File | Photo credit: ANI
Launching his campaign for the 2027 assembly polls from West Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday (March 29, 2026) that peedha (suffering) is the thread that binds the PDA (short for Backward, Dalits and Minorities) while those in power have not felt it.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of being a compulsive liar that functions as a giroh (gang) that uses “divisive and discriminatory politics”, he reiterated that after the Lok Sabha polls, those who wanted to change the Ambedkar constitution went underground but had to be completely driven into violence.
In 2024, the SP-Congress alliance pushed the BJP to second place in the electorally decisive state and on Sunday (March 29, 2026), Mr. Yadav struck the same tune that helped him stop the BJP juggernaut in the Lok Sabha polls. Mr. Yadav highlighted the rally’s theme of samanta (equality) and bhaichara (brotherhood) and reminded the gathering that Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) had named the party with socialism in mind, one of the basic components of the preamble.
The era of “social justice”
Mr Yadav said it was time to bring back the “era of social justice”. “PDA is a vehicle for political and mental change. It is a progressive, forward-looking movement because the deprived and the poor have no caste or religion. We are humiliated on the streets and face ridicule in offices. After visiting, we faced the agony of the temples we washed. We will bring back the era of social justice. It does not matter if it takes a year or a century.”
Poking holes in the Yogi Adityanath government’s development slate, Mr. Yadav said the government had signed an MoU worth ₹ 50 lakh crores but nothing was visible on the ground. Alleging that the government was involved in the paper leak, Mr. Yadav said, “The BJP does not want to provide government jobs to the youth because then they would have to give their share of jobs to the PDA as guaranteed by the constitution.”
A massive rally was organized in Dadri town at Gautam Buddha Nagar, less than 50 km from Jewar International Airport, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting on Saturday. Mr. Yadav blamed the government’s acquittal on mismanagement of the state’s airports.
No customers for the airport
“I want to tell those who inaugurated the airport on Saturday (March 28, 2026) that six of the seven airports they inaugurated are no longer in regular operation. They should have promised that the new airport will not be sold to a private player,” he said. Mr Yadav promised that if voted to power, the SP would buy land from farmers for the upcoming phases of the international airport at market rates.
Party sources said that the leadership had been preparing for the rally in the Gurjar belt for 8 months. Mr Yadav decorated a statue of Pratihara emperor Mihir Bhoja, whom the Gurjars claim as their own, while the Rajput stake claims his legacy. This has caused a rift between the two communities in the past, with a section of Gurjar leaders accusing Mr. Adityanath, who heads the BJP government in UP, of conniving with the Rajputs.
In West UP, Gurjars play an important role in deciding the fate of at least 24 seats, where their numbers range from 20,000 to 70,000. In 2022, the SP contested the parliamentary elections in alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal. With Chaudhary Jayant Singh (RLD) now leading the Jat farmers towards the National Democratic Alliance, Mr Yadav is trying to forge a bond between Muslims and Gurjars in West UP.
Published – 29 March 2026 21:57 IST
