India, July 26 -- SP retains PDA coalition while expanding outreach to Hindu voters.

As Uttar Pradesh gears up for the 2027 Assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) appears to be recalibrating its political strategy. While continuing to rely on its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) social coalition, which delivered significant gains in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party is also making a visible attempt to broaden its appeal among Hindu voters through what political observers describe as a "soft Hindutva" strategy.

The shift is evident in the way SP president Akhilesh Yadav has aggressively pursued the alleged Ram Mandir donation embezzlement issue, directly targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak S...