By appointing Pandey as LoP, Akhilesh has BJP in a bind

Samajwadi Party appoints Mata Prasad Pandey as LoP in UP Assembly, strategically balancing caste dynamics against BJP.

The appointment of veteran Samajwadi Party leader Mata Prasad Pandey as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly is being seen as yet another surprise move by party president Akhilesh Yadav to counter the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is yet to recover from his PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) plank in the Lok Sabha poll.

Mr. Pandey was not a front runner for the post, and political analysts were suggesting that the choice would be between the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Indrajit Saroj and senior party leader Shivpal Yadav. However, by picking a Brahmin over a Dalit or a family member, Mr. Yadav showed yet again that he is not a one-trick pony.

Party insiders say several things worked in favour of Mr. Pandey. On the surface, the logic is that the seven-time MLA and former Speaker of the Assembly is a seasoned socialist who remained loyal to the SP even when the party’s electoral fortunes hit a low. In comparison, Mr. Saroj switched from the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2018.

The socialist party puts class over caste struggle, but the ideological pitch gets a bit muddled as the party has picked a Brahmin to give a face to the tug of war between the Thakur and Brahmin politics in Purvanchal in the Assembly. After the BJP came to power in the State in 2017, time and again a section of the Brahmin leadership raised concerns that under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the interests of the Brahmins have been undermined. “Jo peedit hai, shoshit hai, woh pichhda hai (The one that is aggrieved and exploited is backward in society). And Brahmins are victims of the rampant thakurwad (Thakur domination) in the current Uttar Pradesh administration,” alleged a member of the SP think tank.

He reeled out cases where the victim was from the Brahmin community and the perpetrators were allegedly from the Rajputs. “Mr. Pandey is better placed to take on Baba (Mr. Adityanath) who asserts his caste identity for political gains,” he said. Interestingly, the SP had secured both Rajput and Brahmin support on some crucial Lok Sabha seats as Virendra Singh defeated BJP candidate and former Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey in Chandauli. In Ballia, its Brahmin candidate Sanatan Pandey vanquished BJP’s Rajput face and former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar on his home turf.

Also, the BJP’s ploy to bring SP’s chief whip Manoj Pandey to its fold didn’t yield any benefits in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Senior party leader Muneer Ahmad said that is why the BJP was in a bind after the Lok Sabha poll because the SP truly implements the principle of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’. “We have always been for 15% share for upper castes. It reflects in our seat percentage in the Lok Sabha as well where five out of 37 hail from upper castes,” he said.