Akhilesh Yadav’s Hindu pivot and search for a coalition beyond Muslims, Yadavs

As Uttar Pradesh inches closer to the 2027 Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is overtly asserting his Hindu identity to cobble an overarching umbrella coalition of Hindu voters cutting across caste and class lines.

The shift was evident after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s scathing indictment of the Yogi Adityanath government over the alleged deletion of more than 1.27 crore Hindu voters from the electoral rolls during the INDIA bloc rally in New Delhi on Sunday (November 1).

Even as the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise struck off over two crore voters in the state, Akhilesh's public outburst was not directed at the overall scale of deletions but specifically at the alleged exclusion of Hindu voters and the demand for their re-enrolment.

Ram, Krishna remarks

The following day, Akhilesh Yadav stepped up that rhetoric by targeting Bageshwar Dham's Dhirendra Krishna Shastri (Baba Bageshwar) over his controversial remarks about Lord Ram and Lord Krishna. Akhilesh called the comparison derogatory and an affront to Hindu sentiments. His social media outburst also raked up the alleged desecration of Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi to make way for the state government's redevelopment projects.

These were not isolated flirtations with the soft-Hindutva but part of a broader political strategy to expand the SP's PDA coalition into a broader Hindu constituency, replicating the very model of Hindu vote consolidation that has underpinned the BJP's electoral success in the state.

This assertion of Hindu identity, political analysts argue, stems from an implicit acknowledgement by Akhilesh Yadav that to wrest power back from the Yogi-led BJP government, the party has to look beyond its traditional Muslim-Yadav (M-Y) voting bloc.

“The SP’s PDA coalition delivered a formidable electoral dividend in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party won 37 seats and emerged as a serious challenger to the BJP’s dominance in the state. His recent overtures are now aimed at weaning away core Hindutva voters from the BJP and forging a much broader social coalition,” Praveen Rai, political analyst at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), told The Federal.

Who is a greater Hindu?

Even as Yogi Adityanath seeks to revive the BJP’s 80-20 polarisation narrative, Akhilesh is attempting to turn the tables by recasting the political contest as a battle over who has a greater claim to Hindu identity and the right to represent the Sanatan faith.

These were not isolated flirtations with the soft-Hindutva but part of a broader political strategy to expand the SP's PDA coalition into a broader Hindu constituency, replicating the very model of Hindu vote consolidation that has underpinned the BJP's electoral success in the state.

This shift is increasingly evident in Akhilesh's slew of temple visits with his wife and Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav, meetings with the Shankaracharyas, promise to build a Kedareshwar temple in Etawah, and a host of other overtures to Hindu religious and cultural identity.

“Akhilesh struck a political gold mine when his party MLA Pawan Pandey blew the whistle on the alleged embezzlement of Ram Mandir donations. The SP has since seized on the controversy to turn the BJP's own ideological plank against it, questioning its claim to be the sole custodian of Hindu faith,” argued veteran political commentator Anand Vardhan.

More recently, when challenged by Yogi to speak on the Krishna Janambhoomi dispute, Akhilesh responded not with words but with symbolism. He appeared dressed up as Krishna, with a gada (mace) in one hand the sudarshan chakra in another during a party event in Ayodhya, signalling that the party is geared up to take the battle for Hindu votes straight to the BJP's ideological doorstep.

“The party is further emboldened in its endeavours to wean away non-Yadav voters from the confines of the ruling BJP as there’s indeed a palpable anger among the Hindu voters over a host of issues including Ram Mandir donation theft, UGC equity regulations, and large-scale demolition drives in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Prayagraj to make way for developmental projects,” pointed out veteran political analyst Ratan Manilal.

The pivot for a reason

Political analysts attribute this overt shift in political posturing to a growing recognition that the once-formidable Muslim-OBC social coalition appears to have plateaued.

“The SP-Congress bloc realises Muslims and Yadavs alone cannot power its rebound, all the same it is at its wits end regarding where the additional support bases could be explored—from within the upper castes or Dalits or smaller OBC parties,” posited a senior journalist and political analyst Anando Bhakto.

The party’s ticket distribution also underscores this fundamental shift in its electoral calculus. The party fielded just five Yadavs and four Muslims in the 62 constituencies it contested in 2024, widening its candidate pool to accommodate non-Yadav OBCs, Dalits and upper castes.

When that electoral gamble paid off, it deployed the same strategy in the recently held MLC elections, too. Akhilesh Yadav fielded only three Yadav and one Muslim candidate against four upper caste and three non-Yadav OBC candidates.

The assertion of Hindu identity and ticket distribution beyond Yadav-OBCs, however, are least likely, by themselves, to restore the party’s credibility among Hindu voters. Political analysts argue that the SP must first work on the root causes that drove away non-Yadav OBC voters from its fold.

“The SP clearly needs to introspect. Its poor record on law and order and a section of its cadre exerting control on smaller, vulnerable backward castes and monopolising reservation benefits are what frittered away its past mandate and reduced its base from an impregnable Muslim-OBC bloc to Muslim-Yadavs,” Bhakto asserted.

Distancing from Muslims

Equally evident is Akhilesh Yadav’s deliberate efforts to maintain an arm’s-length distance from its Muslim voter base. The party faces charges of having abandoned its Muslim voters and has taken community support for granted.

In 2022, Akhilesh avoided high-profile joint rallies with prominent Muslim leaders, including Azam Khan and his family. Besides, his muted response to Azam Khan’s prolonged incarceration has further reinforced the perception that Akhilesh is no longer willing to champion the Muslim cause, not publicly at least. He did visit Azam Khan in Jail on October 22 and declared that Azam "was, is and will remain".

Also read: Will Nishads steer Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA boat to power in 2027 UP elections?

“But the visit came after months of criticism and amid growing competition from Asaduddin Owaisi for political influence in Rampur,” argued a Muslim SP leader from Kannuaj.

Analysts note that Akhilesh has consciously refrained from sharing the stage with Muslim leaders as he doesn’t want the BJP to level the charges of "minority appeasement" during election cycles to consolidate Hindu votes in its favour.

“After back-to-back defeats in 2017 and 2019, Akhilesh has consciously stepped back from overt minority advocacy. It’s not as such alienation of the minorities but part of a strategy where the SP wants to avoid any en bloc Hindu vote consolidation in favour of the BJP,” Manilal added.

Pivot not without cost

This political maneuver, however, is fraught with risks. There’s been a growing disquiet within the party for a while now, especially among the Muslim leaders. In 2024, national general secretary Salim Sherwani resigned from his post over no representation of Muslim candidates in the party's Rajya Sabha nominations.

Former Azam Khan aide Fasahat Ali Khan has also attacked Akhilesh for allegedly abandoned Muslims and Mulayam Singh Yadav's legacy of secular politics. Similar charges have been levelled by Sambhal MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq, who has openly claimed that Muslims no longer felt adequately represented by the party.

The resentment has further deepened and spread to the organisational ranks, with multiple local Muslim leaders resigning from the party in districts such as Saharanpur, Sultanpur and Bijnor. Many of them accused Akhilesh Yadav of avoiding outspoken interventions on issues involving alleged action against Muslims, including arrests of Muslim politicians and demolition drives.

Experts say that the party is not dismissive of the cost of the pivot in its political posturing. The ‘selective solidarity’ with Muslims, however, stems from the confidence that the community has fundamentally nowhere else to go but the SP or Congress.

“The flagrant majoritarianism under the BJP has forced parties to maintain tactical silence on the Muslim issue. Even during the INDIA Block protest in Delhi, we hear phrases of Shiv ki Baraat and all. Muslim voters are not unaware of the political compulsions that parties have now. So, I believe that they will remain with the SP-Congress alliance regardless of the disquiet,” Vardhan contested.

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Akhilesh's political maneuver, therefore, is not simply about abandoning the Muslim-Yadav coalition that sustained the SP for decades. It is to retain its electoral advantages while shedding the political baggage attached to it.

Political experts remain divided over the prudence of this strategy. While some see it as an adjustment to the state's changing electoral arithmetic, others regard it as theme-hopping that lacks consistency and the rigour required to challenge BJP's core competency.

“Consistency is the key to political narrative-setting, which the Samajwadi Party and its ally in the state, the Congress manifestly lack,” Bhakto added.