New Delhi, Oct 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Congress recently replacing Ajay Rai with Aradhana Misra Mona as its Uttar Pradesh party President reflects a major organisational shake-up ahead of next year's Assembly elections with an evident Brahmin outreach which seemingly is a replay of an earlier formula.
However, it also carries potential of a possible collision with Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav's re-expanded "PDA" slogan.
If the Congress attempts to rebuild its fortunes in Uttar Pradesh through a targeted Brahmin outreach, it would be reinventing the strategy that its leadership embraced a decade ago under the reported guidance of the then political strategist Prashant Kishor.
Ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the Congress had brought in Kishor to draft its revival strategy.
Reports had said that the poll consultant favoured projecting a prominent Brahmin face as the party's Chief Ministerial candidate, saying that Congress could attempt to reconnect with this category, once among its most loyal social constituencies.
The choice had then reportedly been Sheila Dikshit -- a three-term Chief Minister of Delhi, daughter-in-law of Uttar Pradesh's veteran Congress leader Uma Shankar Dikshit -- explicitly linked to her Brahmin identity and perceived appeal among upper-caste voters.
Kishor's strategy was apparently based on the assumption that Brahmins, estimated at around 10 to 12 per cent of Uttar Pradesh's electorate, remained one of the few communities where Congress might recover lost ground.
The experiment failed spectacularly, and the Congress won only seven seats in the election, contesting 114 among a total of 403 Assembly constituencies.
Incidentally, Kishor has moved on to active politics and is now an elected MLA in Bihar.
Though the 2021 Uttar Pradesh poll outcome signalled that caste alone cannot substitute for an effective organisational base, the Congress appears confident this time, having benefited from its alliance with the SP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
But any Congress attempt to woo Brahmins may contest Akhilesh Yadav's possible outreach, where, over the past two years, the SP Chief has been consciously enlarging the meaning of PDA.
Originally articulated as "Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (Backward, Dalit and Minority)", the acronym became the organising slogan of the SP's 2024 campaign.
More recently, however, Akhilesh Yadav has sought to reassure Brahmins that they too belong within the acronym.
Addressing a Brahmin-oriented gathering in Lucknow, the SP Chief said that the "P" in PDA also stands for "Pandit", and accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of neglecting and disrespecting the community.
Analysts perceived it significant since for decades the SP's image was rooted in the Muslim-Yadav (MY) alliance.
PDA was assumed as a design to broaden that base toward non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits.
The newer emphasis on Pandits suggested efforts to create an even wider anti-BJP social coalition.
This is where Congress could face a strategic dilemma, it is being said, where if it seeks to revive the Brahmin-centric logic associated with the Sheila Dikshit experiment, it would be fishing in the same pond as the SP.
The competition would not be over hardcore BJP supporting forward class, but may likely focus on politically mobile upper-caste voters dissatisfied with the ruling party but unwilling to back a purely caste-based Opposition platform.
Meanwhile, unlike 2016, when the Congress hoped Brahmins might become the core of a revival strategy, today's Opposition space in the state is largely dominated by the SP.
Congress may thus find it difficult to present itself as the primary political vehicle for Brahmin aspirations while sharing platform with a stronger regional ally.
Contrarily, some state leaders say, the strategy may help consolidate the Congress-SP bloc among Brahmins with both parties speaking in the same voice.
The final verdict, as goes the cliche, only the future can tell.
Source: IANS
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