LUCKNOW, July 17 -- The Samajwadi Party (SP) is planning to field nearly 100 Dalit candidates in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, including on unreserved general seats, in a strategic shift aimed at broadening its social base and strengthening its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) plank.

Party insiders said the move is part of a deliberate attempt to move beyond its traditional Muslim-Yadav (MY) support base and project itself as a broader social coalition. While the SP-Congress alliance largely restricted Dalit candidates to reserved constituencies in the 2022 assembly elections, it broke new ground in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by fielding Dalit candidates from high-profile general seats such as Faizabad and Meerut.

According ...