Lucknow, June 26 -- Upping the ante on the Ram temple donation controversy with an eye on the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party is preparing to take the issue of alleged "chanda chori" (donation theft) to villages and polling booths through its PDA panchayats and training programmes while raising questions of accountability, highly placed sources in the SP said.

Going beyond its PDA (Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak) caste alliance formula to counter the BJP's Hindutva narrative and weaving in the temple donation controversy in its grassroots mobilisation drive, the SP appears to be retaining its core social justice messaging while attempting to dent the ruling party on one of its strongest planks of cultural resurgence...