Congress Uttar Pradesh state chief Ajay Rai on 25 September 2026 responded calmly to Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav launching the 'PDA Rath Yatra' from Raebareli — a traditional Congress stronghold — saying everyone is free to campaign wherever they choose, while insisting his party remains focused on its own electoral preparations for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The remarks came a day after Yadav formally flagged off the yatra in what observers noted was a deliberate foray into Congress territory.

Ajay Rai's Measured Response

'Anyone can go anywhere for election campaigning. We are certainly doing our work. We stand firmly with the people in their joys and sorrows,' Rai said. The UP Congress chief pointedly shifted focus to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, asserting that 'the entire nation is looking towards him today' and that Gandhi is 'raising national issues and strongly presenting questions that concern the public.' The remarks were calculated to project Congress as above inter-alliance rivalries while quietly flagging Yadav's encroachment into its turf.

SP's PDA Yatra: What It Is and Why Raebareli

Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday launched the 'PDA Yatra' — a campaign built around the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak — Backward, Dalit, Minority) social coalition — from Raebareli as the opening salvo of the SP's grassroots outreach for the 2027 UP Assembly polls. During the event, Yadav targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) directly, declaring that when the time comes to vote, 'no matter how much effort the BJP exerts, the people of the PDA will unite to defeat them.' Ahead of the launch, SP leaders and workers erected posters and hoardings across Raebareli depicting Yadav in the avatars of Lord Ram and Lord Krishna — imagery that drew immediate criticism from National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders.

NDA Fires Back at Yadav and the INDIA Bloc

Minister O.P. Rajbhar was among the sharpest critics, connecting Yadav's choice of Raebareli to a recent controversy in which an SP district president allegedly threatened a local police officer. 'Akhilesh Yadav is going to Raebareli to encourage his people and boost the morale of his unruly people, and this is what will prove fatal for him,' Rajbhar told reporters. BJP MP Ravi Kishan went further, claiming that Rahul Gandhi has grown 'uneasy' because Yadav is 'making inroads into whatever little Congress vote bank remains' — a remark that cuts to the core tension within the INDIA bloc ahead of a high-stakes state election.

INDIA Bloc Unity Under the Spotlight

SP MP Rajeev Rai backed Ajay Rai's statement, saying: 'Whatever he said is absolutely right...we will keep working hard to ensure that the INDIA bloc wins the maximum seats in the Assembly polls.' The endorsement was notable, given that both parties are simultaneously cooperating under the INDIA alliance banner and competing for overlapping vote bases in Uttar Pradesh. This is not the first time the SP-Congress alliance has shown visible strain in UP — the two parties ran separately in recent urban local body elections before patching up for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the INDIA bloc made significant gains in the state. Whether that chemistry holds through a gruelling assembly campaign remains the central question.

What to Watch Next

The PDA Rath Yatra is expected to continue across multiple districts of Uttar Pradesh in the coming weeks, with Yadav seeking to consolidate the backward-Dalit-minority coalition that drove SP's strong Lok Sabha performance. Congress, meanwhile, faces the challenge of asserting an independent identity in a state where its organisation has steadily eroded. How the two parties manage their competitive coexistence inside the INDIA bloc will be a defining subplot of the 2027 UP Assembly election narrative.