Akhilesh flags empty chairs at BJP OBC meet in Bareilly
Synopsis
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on 25 September 2026 claimed chairs remained empty at a BJP backward class conference in Bareilly, alleging funds from Maharashtra failed to draw crowds and invoking the PDA alliance as proof of BJP's declining OBC support.
Key Takeaways
Akhilesh Yadav alleged that a BJP -organised backward class conference in Bareilly saw near-empty chairs, with party MPs and leaders waiting for hours.
He claimed that funds brought from Maharashtra — labelled 'Kuber's treasure of corruption' — failed to attract attendees.
Yadav accused BJP of using alleged 'temple money' for political mobilisation, a charge that is unverified and denied by the party.
He invoked the PDA (Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak) alliance as the force holding up a 'mirror of reality' to BJP's OBC outreach.
SP's PDA strategy has been central to its electoral mobilisation since the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections .
BJP has not publicly responded to the Bareilly attendance claims as of publication.
Empty chairs, a waiting stage, and hours with no crowd — Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav seized on what he described as a starkly low turnout at a BJP-organised backward class conference in Bareilly on Friday, 25 September 2026, calling it proof that Uttar Pradesh's public has rejected the ruling party's OBC outreach.
In a pointed post on X, Yadav alleged that BJP MPs and local leaders waited on the dais for hours as chairs remained vacant, writing: 'Bareilly mein BJP dwara aayojit Pichhda Varg Sammelan mein kursiyan khaali hi reh gayin' — 'In Bareilly, the chairs at the BJP-organised backward class conference simply stayed empty.' He further alleged that funds brought from Maharashtra, which he termed 'Kuber's treasure of corruption', failed to draw any crowd.
The 'temple money' allegation
The sharpest barb in Yadav's post was a direct religious-moral charge. He claimed that the people of UP do not want what he called 'BJP ke paap ka paisa' — 'BJP's money of sin' — allegedly stolen from temples. The claim bundles a longstanding SP narrative linking BJP fundraising to misappropriation of religious donations, a charge BJP has consistently denied. The research background flags this specific allegation as unverified, and NationPress does not independently confirm it.
PDA as the answer to BJP's OBC push
Yadav closed with a declaration that the PDA — the Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak social alliance that forms the spine of SP's electoral strategy — had 'held up a mirror of reality' to what he called an 'adharmi BJP' (irreligious BJP). The 'BJP khatam!' (BJP finished!) sign-off was combative, even by the standards of UP's rough-and-tumble political discourse.
The PDA formula is not new. SP deployed it aggressively through the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as a vehicle to consolidate backward-class, Dalit, and minority votes against the BJP. Every subsequent BJP OBC event in the state has become a battleground for rival claims about whose message the community actually endorses. Bareilly, a major city in western UP with a significant OBC and Muslim electorate, is precisely the kind of venue where that contest plays out most visibly.
BJP's OBC strategy under SP's microscope
Opposition leaders in UP have made a habit of amplifying any sign of thin attendance at BJP community outreach programmes, using social media to frame such moments as evidence of electoral drift. Whether Saturday's conference attendance matches, exceeds, or falls short of Yadav's characterisation remains unconfirmed — BJP has not issued a public response to the specific claims as of publication.
What is clear is that the contest for OBC support in Uttar Pradesh — a state that sends 80 Lok Sabha members to Parliament and whose assembly has 403 seats — remains the central electoral battleground between SP and BJP. Yadav's post is designed to do one thing above all: tell backward-class voters that the BJP cannot fill a hall, let alone deliver on its promises. Whether that message lands will be tested the next time UP goes to the polls.
Point of View
SP simultaneously demoralises BJP's OBC base and signals to its own alliance that the rival cannot deliver. The 'temple money' charge adds a moral-religious dimension designed to sharpen the contrast in a deeply religious electorate. With western UP — Bareilly's home turf — historically competitive between SP and BJP, even a perception of weak turnout can carry outsized narrative value ahead of local polls. BJP's silence so far cedes the information field to SP, at least in the short term.
NationPress
25 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Akhilesh Yadav say about the BJP backward class conference in Bareilly?
Akhilesh Yadav claimed the BJP-organised backward class conference in Bareilly on 25 September 2026 saw near-empty chairs, with party MPs and leaders waiting on stage for hours. He alleged that money brought from Maharashtra also failed to draw a crowd.
What is the PDA alliance in Uttar Pradesh politics?
PDA stands for Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak — a social coalition of backward classes, Dalits, and minorities that the Samajwadi Party has promoted as its core vote-consolidation strategy since the 2022 UP assembly elections.
What is the 'temple money' allegation Akhilesh Yadav made?
Yadav alleged that BJP was using money 'stolen from temples' for political mobilisation in UP. This is an unverified claim; BJP has not confirmed it and NationPress does not independently verify the charge.
Why is Bareilly politically significant in Uttar Pradesh?
Bareilly is a major city in western Uttar Pradesh with a significant OBC and minority electorate. It sits in a region where both SP and BJP compete intensely for backward-class support, making it a key battleground in UP's broader caste-coalition politics.
Has BJP responded to Akhilesh Yadav's claims about the Bareilly event?
As of publication on 25 September 2026, BJP has not issued a public response to Akhilesh Yadav's specific claims about attendance at the Bareilly backward class conference.
