Samajwadi Party has done wonders. When its national president Akhilesh Yadav went to Maharashtra recently, he announced the names of five Muslim candidates. Although his party has demanded 12 seats, but his party’s biggest leader in Maharashtra, Abu Asim Azmi, has said that if it does not get five seats, the party will fight on 25 seats. This means that the party needs the same five seats on which Akhilesh Yadav has fielded Muslim candidates. Similarly, when the party announced candidates for nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, there are four Muslim names in it. It seems that Akhilesh has tried this trick to win the ongoing internal struggle with Congress for Muslim votes.
In Uttar Pradesh, he used his PDA i.e. Backward, Dalit and Minority to put minorities first. He fielded four Muslim, three backward and two Dalit candidates. However, he did not use such PDA in Maharashtra. So, we can say that the party has declared candidates for 14 seats in the by-elections and state elections, out of which nine are Muslims. Even in Maharashtra, most of the names declared are Muslims from Uttar Pradesh. That’s why questions are being raised on his use of PDA in UP. After the success of the experiment of victory of a Dalit candidate on the general seat of Faizabad in the Lok Sabha elections, this time he has fielded a Dalit candidate on the general seat of Ghaziabad in the by-election. So, it has to be seen whether backward and Dalits join them like in the Lok Sabha elections or only Muslim and Yadav votes remain with them?