Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday, 21 September launched a sharp attack on Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav over the SP's 'PDA Chariot' campaign, questioning its colour scheme and alleging a calculated electoral drift ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The remarks came via a post on social media platform X in Hindi, drawing a pointed contrast between SP's traditional red and what Mayawati described as a conspicuous use of RSS/BJP's 'saffron'.

The Saffron Colour Charge

The SP's Rath Yatra — its signature campaign vehicle ahead of the 2027 polls — is built around its PDA (Pichhde i.e. Backward Classes, Dalits, and Alpsankhyaks i.e. Minorities) formulation, which the party has positioned as a counter to the BJP's caste consolidation. Mayawati, however, used the chariot's visual aesthetic to deliver a stinging rebuke.

'The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief's 'PDA Chariot' features less of the SP's own red color and more of the RSS/BJP's 'saffron' color. In such a situation, the discussion among people is whether this is all about constantly changing colours like a chameleon for the sake of vote gains, or whether the SP chief has lost faith in securing votes from Muslims,' she said in the tongue-in-cheek post.

Claim on Muslim Voter Shift

Mayawati went further, claiming that the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh was reassessing its political loyalty after years of backing the SP. 'Despite giving the SP the majority of one-sided votes in the previous elections, this party (SP) was still unable to prevent the BJP from forming governments in both UP and at the Centre. So why waste votes by giving them to this party time and again? In this matter, they are now swiftly shifting their stance toward the BSP, much like the Brahmin community among the upper castes,' she claimed.

This is a notable assertion: BSP has been attempting to rebuild a broader social coalition after successive electoral setbacks, including a near-washout in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, where the party won only one seat. Whether this claimed drift is real or aspirational remains to be independently verified.

Attack on SP's PDA Credentials

Mayawati also questioned the ideological consistency of the SP's PDA framing, alleging the party had shifted definitions to suit electoral convenience. She noted that SP leaders had 'sometimes described PD as Backward, Dalit, sometimes as Pandit,' and had, in her telling, co-opted BSP's blue Ambedkarite symbolism for photo opportunities — an act she said voters 'immediately rejected… by calling it fake Ambedkarism.'

The BSP chief called on SP to 'inform the public about the true reality of their PDA now,' suggesting the formulation lacked ideological grounding.

BSP's Counter-Positioning

Mayawati contrasted this with the BSP's self-declared identity as an Ambedkarite party guided by its founding principle of 'Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay' — welfare for all sections of society. She invoked the BSP's governance record in Uttar Pradesh, citing past tenures as evidence of 'ironclad rule of law' and achievements in crime control, law and order, and public welfare.

This comes amid heightened activity across UP's political landscape as all major parties — BJP, SP, BSP, and Congress — begin early mobilisation for what is widely expected to be a high-stakes state election in 2027. The BSP's effort to reclaim its Dalit-Muslim-Brahmin coalition, which powered past majorities, will be closely watched against SP's PDA counter-strategy and the BJP's incumbency advantage.