PDA Diwas by SP a political drama: Maya

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Thursday called the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's announcement of celebrating BSP founder Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary on March 15 as PDA Day a "pure political drama, deceit and show-off to get votes of the deprived sections".She also appealed to "Bahujans" to stay vigilant of such moves.
PDA is SP's political plank to reach out to 'Pichhde, Dalits and Alpsankhyak'. It benefited the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when it won 37 seats in UP. BSP did not win any. It was a sharp contrast to SP and BSP's performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the two parties contested in alliance. BSP won 10 seats and SP bagged 5. In a message on X, Mayawati said: "SP has always been anti-Dalit, anti-OBC and anti-BSP. It has shown disrespect and disdain towards great saints, gurus and eminent personalities born in the Bahujan Samaj. The media, and their PDA, are aware of this." The former UP CM said it was hard to forget these communities were exploited and oppressed by the SP for a long time. She recounted the 1995 guest house incident, when, after withdrawing support from the SP-BSP govt in UP, she was attacked by SP supporters in Lucknow. "In the case of Kanshi Ram Ji, who brought Samajwadi Party to power, the SP govt changed the name of a new district named after him. The BSP govt gave Kasganj the status and honour of a district headquarters by creating a new district named Kanshi Ram Nagar, but it did not sit well with Akhilesh Yadav," said Mayawati, adding that the SP govt, which succeeded her govt in UP, renamed Kanshi Ram Nagar as Kasganj in 2012. "SP should also answer Bahujans as to why the SP govt did not declare even a single day of state mourning when Kanshi Ram Ji died in Oct 2006," she asked.