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    SP leaders question party's PDA strategy after RS nominations

    Synopsis

    Samajwadi Party's Rajya Sabha nominations have sparked controversy among party leaders. Saleem Shervani and Swami Prasad Maurya resigned over lack of representation. MLA Pallavi Patel criticized the lack of diversity. The party's PDA strategy is being questioned.

    SP leaders question party's PDA strategy after RS nominationsANI
    Samajwadi Party's nominations for the Rajya Sabha have become a point of contention for its party leaders who are now questioning the party's adherence to its PDA (Picchda Dalit Alpsankhyak) strategy to counter NDA. Prominent Muslim leader Saleem Shervani has resigned from the party's national general secretary post on Sunday over the issue.

    Last week, SP nominated four-time MP Jaya Bachchan, former IAS officer close to Akhilesh Yadav, Alok Ranjan, and former MP and Dalit face Ram ji Lal Suman to the Rajya Sabha. Soon after the announcement of the names, MLA Pallavi Patel, who heads the Apna Dal (K), an ally of SP, but fought the 2022 UP elections on an SP ticket, criticised the lack of names of either backward or minorities in the RS list. Both Bachchan and Ranjan belong to forward castes. Patel has even threatened she will not vote for the candidates in the RS polls. Patel belongs to the backward Kurmi caste. It was speculated that she was seeking RS ticket for her mother Krishna Patel from SP.

    On Sunday, Saleem Iqbal Shervani, a former Congressman and union minister who was a close ally of Rajiv Gandhi, resigned from SP's national general secretary post over lack of a single Muslim candidate in the RS list. In his resignation letter addressed to Akhilesh Yadav, Shervani said that Muslims were losing faith in the party and despite repeated suggestions to include one Muslim name in the list, even if not his own, the suggestion was not implemented.

    Aside from the RS issue, Swami Prasad Maurya, SP MLC and an influential OBC leader, also quit from the post of national general secretary last week over alleged discrimination against him. Yadav had coined the term PDA as a counter to the National Democratic Alliance or NDA, which was part of the party's strategy to consolidate the votes of backwards, Dalits and minorities to put up a contest against BJP.



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