Akhilesh Yadav Launches PDA Rath Yatra from Raebareli Ahead of 2027 Polls

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav launched a vehicle rally, the PDA Rath Yatra, from Raebareli on Thursday, opening a fresh phase of the party's mobilisation across Uttar Pradesh. The outreach is built around the party's Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak (PDA) social coalition and is aimed at the 2027 State Assembly elections.

The party said Mr. Yadav would travel to various places and meet people facing atrocities at the hands of what it described as feudal forces backed by the BJP government.

Addressing supporters in Raebareli, Mr. Yadav asked ordinary people to back the Samajwadi Party in its fight against "dominant, hegemonic people" and to join the PDA movement. Drawing on the Mahabharata, he said the chariot is a symbol of Kurukshetra in Indian culture and that even God had once delivered the Gita from a similar chariot. He said the struggle against dominant forces was not over and that the PDA movement was uniting the oppressed and humiliated.

The SP chief accused the BJP government of deploying bulldozers against marginalised and innocent people. He alleged that those moving around with bulldozers do not act against their own supporters, and that while ponds, land and houses are occupied, no action follows. He urged party workers to aim at increasing the party's margin by 27,000 votes in every assembly constituency for the coming elections.

Mr. Yadav said backward communities and Dalits had recognised their strength. He accused the BJP of being "fake Hindus" and alleged that countless temples were demolished by bulldozers in Kashi, which he called the oldest place on earth. He said the people of the PDA had now realised their strength and numbers and would neither bow down nor retreat, adding that the party had defeated its rivals in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and would work to eliminate them politically in 2027. He described the contest as a struggle thousands of years old.

Asked by local reporters why Raebareli was chosen to start the yatra, Mr. Yadav said the programme was organised in honour of party MLA Rahul Lodhi, Engineer Virendra Yadav and members of the student wing who, he said, had been subjected to injustice and mistreatment in the district. He said the party would always stand with them and would be seen alongside those facing insult or discrimination wherever the PDA is targeted.

Senior SP leader Sudhir Panwar said the yatra had conveyed a strong message of PDA unity after what he called the humiliation of Samajwadi Party leaders by the ABVP with state support, and had set the tone for the 2027 campaign. He said the enthusiastic public response reflected anger over inflation, unemployment and what he termed the anti-PDA policy of the Yogi government.

The Congress struck a cautious note on the visit while stressing opposition unity. Imran Masood, the party's Lok Sabha MP, said that if the Samajwadi Party is travelling from there, its meaning should be understood, and that with Rahul Gandhi's hand in theirs there was no cause for worry.