After BSP, SP begins Brahmin outreach ahead of UP assembly elections

Senior SP leaders who come from the Prabuddh cell and the Parshuram Peeth met party chief Akhliesh Yadav on Sunday.

The Samajwadi Party said on Monday it will hold a series of meetings with intellectuals ahead of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly elections slated for next year. The development is seen as SP’s bid to woo the Brahmins and comes after the Bahujan Samajwadi Party led by Mayawati started a series of ‘prabudh sammelans’ under the leadership of Satish Chandra Mishra, the party’s general secretary who is considered to be the Brahmin face of the political outfit.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav asked party leaders to start series of meetings in a bid to woo Brahmins and other upper castes. (PTI Photo)

Senior SP leaders who come from the Prabuddh cell and the Parshuram Peeth met party chief Akhliesh Yadav on Sunday. The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister gave a nod to hold a series of meetings, slated to begin from Ballia, starting next month, spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told news agency PTI.

Chaudhary said that unlike the BSP, the SP’s Prabuddh Sabha has been working with the people since last year. Former MLA Santosh Pandey who led the Parshuram Peeth also expressed the desire to hold such a meeting following the approval from the party president. Pandey alleged that Brahmins continue to face harassment and atrocities under the BJP rule, while saying the people need to be made aware that a government led by the SP can only give them justice.

BSP chief Mayawati also announced a campaign from Ayodhya to reach out to the upper caste and Brahmin voters and urged the community not to be misled by the BJP. She had claimed that the people from the upper castes were repenting after voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the previous elections.