No votes, no Constitution: Akhilesh kicks off UP poll campaign with warning

Samajwadi Party chief targets BJP over voter roll revision, Dalit representation and school closures as campaign kicks off for UP polls

Akhilesh Yadav launches Samajwadi Party campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections with massive Dalit convention in Agra.

He accuses BJP of targeting Dalit voters through electoral roll revisions and claims 26,000 schools have been shut in the state.

SP chief promises jobs, social justice measures and protection of Dalit icons, announces series of welfare commitments.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has sounded the poll bugle for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections with a massive Dalit convention at the GIC grounds in Agra on Sunday, 15 November, seeking to consolidate the community's support behind his party.

"Those who wanted to abolish the Constitution are now trying to take away your votes. Check your names on the electoral rolls and protect your voting rights. They know they are beginning to lose elections through votes, which is why they are conducting the special summary revision (SSR) after the special intensive revision (SIR). They want only BJP members to have their names on the electoral rolls and be recognised as citizens of India. If votes are not protected, the Constitution will not survive. Save your vote, save the Constitution," he said.

"They want to dismantle the Constitution and run the country according to their own whims, but this country will be governed by the Constitution, not by their personal whims," he added.

Delighted by the turnout, Yadav said the gathering had transcended regional boundaries. "This is not merely a Dalit convention of western Uttar Pradesh. It feels as though this is a Dalit convention for the entire country," he said.

. Yadav has made a concerted effort to bring Dalits into the Samajwadi Party's political fold. After the 2022 Assembly elections, he consolidated the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak -- backward classes, Dalits and minorities) social coalition. The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were seen as a vindication of this strategy. Local Dalit leaders have played an important role in the effort, helping the SP move beyond its traditional Muslim-Yadav (MY) support base and build a presence among Dalit voters.

The Agra convention was organised under the stewardship of Rajya Sabha MP Ramjilal Suman, who belongs to the Dalit community. Yadav repeatedly referred to Suman during his address, implicitly crediting him for the successful mobilisation.

"After this Dalit convention in Agra, the ground will shift beneath the feet of those who consider themselves invincible. Dalits will deal the BJP a blow this time. The 'D' in PDA stands for powerful Dalits," he said.

Yadav also alleged that more than 200 statues of Babasaheb Ambedkar had been vandalised in Uttar Pradesh. "The hand holding the Constitution is the very hand that is being broken," he said.

Earlier, Ramjilal Gautam, addressing the gathering, said western Uttar Pradesh had traditionally stood with Babasaheb Ambedkar and was once a stronghold of the Republican Party founded by him.

"People from the RSS and the BJP are enemies of Dalits. Ambedkar's statues are being vandalised today, in a conspiracy to attack his ideas and, through them, hurt the sentiments of Dalits," he said.

The massive convention in Agra is being projected by the Samajwadi Party as a show of its growing outreach to Dalits ahead of the Assembly elections. Before 2019, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), particularly under Mayawati, frequently accused the SP of being anti-Dalit, invoking the 1995 guest house incident to target the party's top leadership.

. However, the political alignment of Dalit voters in Uttar Pradesh has shifted since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to the political assessment presented at the convention. The Agra gathering was intended to demonstrate that this shift towards the SP had not been a one-off development and that the party could mobilise Dalit voters behind it independently.

Turning his attack on the Yogi Adityanath-led state government, Yadav alleged that Uttar Pradesh had recorded the highest number of examination paper leaks.

"When they failed to intimidate Dalits, they began shutting down schools to prevent their children from getting ahead through education. As many as 26,000 schools have been closed in the state. These are primary schools, where most students come from PDA communities. By shutting them down, the government has deprived PDA children of education, teaching jobs and their constitutional right to reservation," he said.

. He further alleged that Uttar Pradesh ranked first in atrocities against Dalits and crimes against women, while government hospitals themselves were in need of treatment.

"PDA communities have no representation in constitutional institutions. But social justice will be established through a PDA government, and those who intimidate and threaten members of the Dalit community will be punished. The lathi will lose and the laptop will win," he said.

In an indirect attack on Chandrashekhar and Asaduddin Owaisi's 'Samajik Parivartan Morcha', Yadav took aim at what he described as political outsiders trying to influence the state's electoral contest.

"Agra is famous across the world as a destination for tourists. This time, political tourists have arrived as well. But their OTPs are coming from somewhere else. They are becoming loudspeakers for someone else's agenda," he said.

. Taking another swipe at those who offered their own interpretations of the PDA acronym, Yadav said: "Those who try to explain what PDA means should know that it stands for 'Akhilesh will turn the tables, and the people of Agra will turn the tables'. Those who lost in 2024 will lose again in 2027. The message from this Dalit convention is clear: 'Anyone who stands with the BJP stands against Dalits'."

Responding to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's 80:20 remark, Yadav said the political battle was not about an 80:20 division but a contest between five per cent and 95 per cent. "A true yogi should speak for 100 per cent of the people," he said.

Yadav also offered a glimpse of the party's likely election manifesto through a series of promises at the convention. He said candidates who had successfully cleared the 69,000-teacher recruitment process would get justice and that contractual workers would also receive fair treatment.

He promised double payment for overtime to workers employed in Agra's footwear factories, along with minimum wages and assured overtime payments for labourers.

He also pledged legal safeguards to ensure that no statues were vandalised in the state, the filling of vacant government posts to extend the benefits of reservation, and a dedicated budget for the welfare and upliftment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.