Akhilesh Yadav launches bicycle yatra, says party stands with all castes
Oct 30, 2023
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 30 : Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at a question posed by a journalist about the place of 'forward' or general caste people in the party's PDA claiming his party stood with everyone.
PDA which stands for Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak is a term coined by the SP to define the people who the party is looking to address. Today, Akhilesh Yadav added another A to the grouping saying that in PDA, 'A' also stands for 'Agdaa' meaning the forward class.
"In PDA, 'A' is also for 'Agdaa' (forward). This is the problem that we are not accepting that we are forward, even when we are," Akhilesh said at a press conference at Lucknow on Monday at the launch of his bicycle yatra dubbed the Samajwadi PDA Yatra.
Akhilesh further explained that the problem lies in the fact that the people have the notion that the Yadav community is backward. He added that a backward person cannot build a stadium like the Lucknow Ekana Stadium.
"This is the problem. You think that Yadav means 'backward'. Did you not go to the stadium to watch the match? How are we 'backward'? A 'backward' cannot build a stadium like that (Lucknow Ekana Stadium)," he said.
Akhilesh was referring to the stadium where India scored a 100-run win against England in the 29th match of the ODI World Cup 2023 in Lucknow on Sunday. Leaders across the political aisle hailed Team India's victory. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was in attendance at the stadium.
Hitting out at Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh said, "The ones who built the stadium are forward, and the ones taking pictures in it are backward. The ones who made the expressway are forward."
The Lucknow Ekana Stadium was built during the Samajwadi Party's regime when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief had coined the term 'PDA' saying that it is the name of the unity born out of shared consciousness and feeling against the exploitation and oppression of those who are "Pichhde" (backward), Dalit and "Alpasankhyak" (minority).
"PDA is basically the name of that unity born out of consciousness and common feeling against the exploitation, oppression and neglect of 'backward, dalit and minority'," Akhilesh had earlier explained in a post on X.
