Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday that Uttar Pradesh will see an "80-20" fight in upcoming Assembly polls. This follows the Samajwadi Party deciding not to field a third Rajya Sabha candidate. The BJP leader previously used this 80-20 phrase before the 2022 elections to describe the political contest.
After the Samajwadi Party (SP) decided not to field a third Rajya Sabha poll candidate from Uttar Pradesh, paving the way for the unopposed election of its two and the ruling BJP's eight candidates to the Upper House, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday that the state would again see an "80-20" fight in upcoming Assembly polls.
Since the SP has not fielded a third candidate, there will be no contest between it and the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The SP has renominated veteran leader Ram Gopal Yadav, uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav, and fielded Reliance executive Dhanraj Nathwani as its second Rajya Sabha candidate. The party has enough strength in the Assembly to get its two candidates elected to Rajya Sabha.
The SP chief first floated the abbreviation PDA -- Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (backward classes, Dalits, and minorities) -- in June 2023. The formulation was projected as the SP's social coalition against the BJP-led NDA, with Akhilesh repeatedly claiming, "PDA hi NDA ko harayega (it is the PDA that will defeat the NDA)".
Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, Adityanath had remarked that the Assembly election contest would be an "80 per cent vs 20 per cent" fight, with the 20 per cent interpreted as a reference to the population of the minorities in the state.