Akhilesh Yadav Intensifies PDA Strategy, Accuses Yogi Govt of Favouring Thakurs for Police Posts

New Delhi: In a new push to his politics of PDA, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has questioned the alleged over-representation of the Thakur community, into which Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath was born, in the state’s police force.

PDA stands for pichhda (backward), Dalit, and alpsankhyak (minorities).

By highlighting the posting of Thakur police personnel in various police stations, and contrasting it with the representation of Dalits, Other Backward Classes and Muslims, Yadav is attempting to use the same stick the Bharatiya Janata Party used to beat him with when he was in power.

The saffron party, backed by friendly media, had led concerted campaigns against the Samajwadi Party government from 2012 to 2017 accusing it of unduly favouring Yadavs in top police postings at the state, district and police station levels. This allegation became one of the pillars of the story of “Yadavvad” or Yadavism spun by the BJP when Akhilesh Yadav had a majority government. This proved to be electorally costly for the SP.

On April 14, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, Yadav launched a new political message to further cement the PDA coalition as he resolved to establish not just “Nyay ka raj (rule of law)" but also “Samajik nyay ka raj (rule of social justice)." In other terms, he seeks the unity of the backward castes, Dalits and religious minorities against the Hindutva strategy of the BJP.

Strength in numbers

To give it further thrust, Yadav has accused the BJP of unreasonably favouring the dominant Thakur community in police postings. On April 21, Yadav took to X and shared a graph claiming that out of the 44 police station postings in Prayagraj, one of the biggest districts in UP, 11 Station House Officers (SHO) belonged to the Singh community, while only 11 came from the PDA bloc. The other “general caste” communities had 19 SHOs. Although Singh is a title or surname used by various castes (hose belonging to communities which are upper castes, OBCs, Dalits and tribals), it is largely associated with the Kshatriya communities or the Thakur and Rajput castes. Yadav too used it to refer to the Thakurs.

90% PDA को प्रयागराज पुलिस में केवल 25% प्रतिनिधित्व। ये है पीडीए के साथ किया जा रहा ‘आनुपातिक अन्याय’ है। pic.twitter.com/hVlOMNVMfl

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) April 21, 2025

OBCs, Dalits and religious minorities together make up around 85% of the state’s population while Thakurs are estimated to be just around 4-5%.

Yadav alleged that only 25% of the police force in Prayagraj was populated by PDA communities, which he said represented 90% of the population. “This is ‘proportional injustice’ being done to PDA,” he said.

Over the last few days, Yadav has raised similar questions about the police force in other districts as well. Yadav and his party, however, have not provided details of their claims even as the UP police has come out and denied the allegations of caste-based postings.

Yadav alleged that out of the 48 police officers posted in Agra, only 15 belonged to PDA while the rest were “Singh bhai log.” In Chitrakoot, Yadav said out of 10 postings only two were from the PDA while five were “Singh.” In Mahoba, only three out of 11 were from PDA while six belonged to the “Singh” community, he said. Yadav also said he could predict that the next Director General of Police of UP would be a “caretaker” DGP and have the name “Singh.”

Yadav said that in Mainpuri district out of 15 SHOs, 10 belonged to Adityanath’s caste group. The former chief minister, who has earlier labelled the police’s Special Task Force or STF as a Special Thakur Force, said out of 21 officers in the unit, 11 were “Singh saab” while only three came from PDA communities. In the past, he made similar allegations about postings in Ayodhya, Moradabad and Mirzapur.

'Misleading,' says police

UP DGP Prashant Kumar described Yadav’s allegations as spreading falsehood. “This has been clarified several times that there is no caste-based posting in the police department,” Kumar told a local television channel. The police department follows directions given by the government as per the representation allotted to SC, ST, general and OBC blocs, he said.

The officer said that before spreading “such misleading information,” people should first evaluate it on the basis of facts.

District units of UP police also issued separate statements to refute Yadav’s claims, which were widely shared on social media.

Agra police said that certain social media sites and handlers were presenting “misleading” information about appointment of SHOs in the district. It said that rules for the appointment of SHOs were being followed strictly as per the instructions of the government. In the Agra commissionerate area, 39% of the officers in-charge of police stations belonged to the OBC community, 19% from the SC community and 42% from the general category, the police said, highlighting that only 27% reservation was given to OBCs.

“It is expected from the responsible people of the society, social media sites and micro blogging sites etc that they should not confuse people with misleading facts, but provide information with correct facts,” said Agra police.

Chitkrakoot police posted a similar statement and said that the district had seven SHOs from the general category, three from the OBC communities and two from Dalit communities.

Prayagraj police refuted Yadav’s data said that that qualified officers were selected as SHOs on the basis of education, truthfulness, social harmony and sensitivity towards public complaints

“About 40% of the police station in-charges posted in the district are from OBC and SC/ST category. The police station in-charge is appointed through a fair process,” Prayagraj police said.

Yadav, however, stuck to his guns. And on April 22, in a press conference in Lucknow showed on screen the websites of the police and the district administration to push the same theory.

He said his claim was based on government records. The SP’s official X handle too sought a clarification from UP police after its denials. “If this data is not correct then please provide a list of the figures you are citing or else provide information about where the correct data can be obtained,” the SP said.

Yadav said that he was only highlighting “BJP’s hatred towards PDA.”

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