Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said the BJP was “jittery” about his party’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) outreach and that the issue is “haunting the saffron leadership in their dreams”.His remarks came a day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath accused Opposition parties of using PDA merely as a tool to woo various castes for electoral gains and ignoring them after coming to power. At another event, BJP state president Pankaj Chaudhary termed PDA the “Parivar Development Authority”, alleging it served only one political family. The two leaders made the statements responding to the SP chief’s charge that BJP was “gripped by fear and frustration” because of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls setback where PDA scripted SP’s unprecedented win. “They (BJP leadership) are jittery about the PDA. They will not understand what PDA is. What can you expect from those who don’t know the full form of artificial intelligence (AI),” Akhilesh told media persons on Thursday. Akhilesh said the fresh attack from the BJP originated from his party’s decision to appoint Rukmani Nishad, elder sister of former MP Phoolan Devi, as the state president of its women’s wing (SP Mahila Sabha). “Rukmani Devi’s appointment has unsettled the BJP. We now have a person from the ‘aadhi abadi’ (women who represent half of the Indian population) to strongly represent the Nishad community in the party,” Akhilesh said.He went on to claim that Rukmani Devi’s appointment has been welcomed by the community and beyond. Responding to another query, Akhilesh said the SP, since its inception, has been demanding share to every community as per their population percentage.“The party has been following this line since the very beginning when Netaji mooted this idea first,” Akhilesh said. “… the BJP does not have a leader from the Pal community. We have our state president Shyam Lal Pal who is the tallest leader of his community,” the SP chief said. Akhilesh demands probe into all MoUs Lucknow: Claiming that most of the investment related MoUs signed between UP govt and different companies were merely a part of a publicity campaign, Akhilesh Yadav demanded a probe into the background of all such firms which have inked pacts and have not initiated the investment process.”BJP govt has signed most of the MoUs with companies that do not have financial standing to match the investments that they had promised. SP demands a probe into all the MoUs and the financial background of such companies,” he said. He described BJP as a party that operates on events and propaganda. “In Hitler’s regime, there was only one propaganda minister. But in BJP govt at the Centre and states, all ministers and office bearers are propaganda ministers and think of themselves as the PM,” he said adding that when it comes to lying, the BJP bags the first position.
