Omar Rashid 
New Delhi: Mata Prasad Pandey, an 81-year-old senior Samajwadi Party (SP) politician from the Brahmin community, is the new leader of the opposition (LoP) in Uttar Pradesh. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to appoint Pandey as the face of the opposition in the UP Assembly, coming after its spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha election, has come as a surprise to many who expected the post to be held by someone from the Dalit or backward caste community.
SP fought the recent election on the narrative of PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak), a code for mobilising support among Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Dalits and Muslims and providing them representation in accordance with their population. Together, these communities make up more than 80% of the state’s population. Many expected that the party would continue its strategy of expanding outreach among the OBCs and Dalits while choosing its team for the UP Assembly, after party supremo Yadav decided to retain his Lok Sabha seat from Kannauj and commit his time to the parliament.
Instead, the SP has picked Pandey to take on chief minister Yogi Adityanath directly in the state assembly. The party has tried to balance things by nominating senior Dalit MLA Indrajeet Saroj as the deputy leader; senior Muslim MLA Kamal Akhtar as the chief whip; Kurmi MLA Rakesh Kumar Verma as the deputy whip and Yadav MLA Sangram Singh Yadav as the whip. While in terms of representation, the nomination of a Brahmin, two OBCs, a Muslim and a Dalit adhere to the PDA formula, much of the attention has been justifiably garnered by the choice for LoP. SP founder, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, his brother Shivpal Yadav and sitting president Akhilesh, have held the LoP position in the state over the years.
On the face of it, Pandey’s nomination as the LoP reflects the SP’s attempt to appear more inclusive. After realising, in successive elections, that the so-called upper caste voters are unlikely to shift their loyalty from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the SP, Akhilesh devised the PDA approach, taking a leaf from Bahujan politics of marginalised Hindu castes fashioned by Bahujan politics ideologue Kanshiram. Pandey’s appointment seems to be a slight diversion from that strategy. Local media has hurriedly interpreted the decision to be Akhilesh’s appeasement of the much-influential Brahmin community.
However, Pandey seems to have been picked primarily due to his experience in legislative proceedings and acceptability among the party, a move to stabilise the party’s ship, rather than an exploratory attempt to appease Brahmins. He has 45 years of experience in electoral politics and was part of the socialist movement leading to the formation of SP.
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It is unlikely that the party expects to win over Brahmin voters and its lobby through such token measures. Akhilesh, as chief minister, promoted several Brahmins as ministers. Even after losing power, he hung onto several Brahmin leaders and gave them prominent posts. One of them, Manoj Pandey, was even picked to be the chief whip of the party in the assembly. But right before the general election he switched to the BJP, delivering a big blow to the SP. In that context, supporters of SP’s social justice strategy hoped that the party would intensify attempts to build trust among the OBCs and Dalits, and no longer waste time on the futile attempts to appease dominant Hindu castes such as Brahmins who have, for decades, considered the BJP as their ideological party and stand firmly with the its ideological goals.
SP’s decision has surprised sections of its supporters and proponents of the PDA strategy. Many took to social media to express their sentiments against what they felt was unnecessary Brahmin appeasement and betrayal of OBCs and Dalits after the recent win in the general elections.
There were several other leaders that the SP could have nominated for the post. But each of them came with their respective baggage and complications. Shivpal, Akhilesh’s uncle, is an experienced legislator but picking him would have given armour to the BJP to play up the dynasty card against the Yadav family. Senior Dalit leaders Indrajeet Saroj and Tufani Saroj were also likely candidates but it seems that they were ruled out since their children were elected as MPs in June. Nominating any other leader who was less experienced than Shivpal would have made it awkward for him in the House and perhaps also alienated his core supporters. Elevating a Muslim MLA would have again provided fodder to the BJP, especially Adityanath, to play up communal politics.
Pandey’s background and age might make him immune to personal attacks from the BJP. The senior leader has been elected as an MLA seven times from Itwa in Siddarth Nagar. He was first elected in 1980. He also held ministerial posts in the Mulayam Singh Yadav governments (1990-1991 and 2003) and was the Speaker of the assembly when Akhilesh was in power from 2012 to 2017, making him well-acquainted with the conduct of the proceedings of the House.
Taking to X, Akhilesh hailed Pandey for his “long experience” of knowing and understanding the traditions of the assembly. Yadav said Pandey was well-versed with the law and process of law making and that these traits would prove to be beneficial to not only the MLAs of SP but also to the Speaker of the House, the chief minister and his colleagues in the BJP.
Senior SP leader Om Prakash Singh, who many expected to be among those in the reckoning for the LoP post, justified Pandey being chosen for the post by praising his “deep understanding of the technicalities, rules and regulations” of the assembly, saying that this would enable him to effectively hold the government accountable and ensure that it works within the framework of the Constitution.
The BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) both united in criticising SP’s decision to nominate Pandey.
Keshav Prasad Maurya, UP deputy chief minister, said Akhilesh Yadav had “betrayed” the OBCs and Dalits by overlooking the PDA formula. Mayawati said it was a matter of concern that the SP secured the votes of the PDA by “misleading them” in the “guise of saving the Constitution” but ignored these sections when it came to electing an LoP. Mayawati further said that there was no place for the rest of the PDA in the SP except for one particular caste and “definitely not for the Brahmin community.” By one particular caste, she meant Yadav.
Mayawati, who has aggressively tried to woo Brahmins over the years, said the community had faced oppression and neglect under the SP and BJP, and it was only the BSP government under her that had ensured their development.
UP goes to polls in 2027. And with the BJP in the middle of an internal crisis, which might possibly become more acute closer to the 2027 campaign given Maurya’s ambitions, the SP has missed an opportunity to further push the saffron party on the backfoot on the question of OBC and Dalit representation. A bold move, after building consensus among senior leaders, to nominate an OBC or Dalit as the LoP would have ticked all the right boxes.