Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav offered floral tributes to Samrat Mihir Bhoj’s statue and performed an abhishek with Ganga water. (File Photo)At his first party’s election rally ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called for change to establish social justice in the state, and leaders from different communities appealed to the people to make him the next chief minister.With the elections nearly nine months away, the SP organised a Samajwadi Samanta Bhaichara rally at the Mihir Bhoj College ground in Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar district, on Sunday, focusing on the local vote bank. The party ensured that leaders from different communities—Kairana MP Iqra Hasan (Muslim), Muzaffarnagar MP Harendra Malik (Jat), Rajya Sabha MP Ramjilal Suman (Dalit), Sardhana MLA Atul Pradhan (Gurjar), and Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey (Brahmin)—addressed the rally and appealed to their respective communities to support the SP and make Yadav the chief minister in 2027.The rally came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed a gathering after inaugurating Phase I of Noida International Airport in Jewar.Yadav said that students of a private university, which had landed in a controversy during the recent AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, were invited to the BJP rally and allowed a day’s leave afterwards.“This time, the BJP is going to leave UP and then Delhi too,” Yadav said.Alleging that farmers in UP were not getting due compensation for their land and price for their crop, the SP chief appealed for change. “Isliye badlav laiye, badaliye (make the change),” he said. “The change will improve your, our, and UP’s fate.”After reaching the rally venue, Yadav offered floral tributes to Samrat Mihir Bhoj’s statue and performed an abhishek with Ganga water. Gurjar leaders present claimed that Bhoj was a ruler from their community.Story continues below this adIn Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, both Gurjars and Rajputs claim that he belonged to their community.Yadav said, “I want you to remember that we have fought that battle. Others wanted to snatch our Samrat and our history.”Yadav promised that if the SP came to power, memorials to Mihir Bhoj, martyr Vijay Singh Pathik, and freedom fighter Kotwal Dhan Singh Gujar would be built in Lucknow and their statues would be installed at the riverfront.He said that no one can forget the SP’s contribution to Noida’s development, citing Delhi-Noida metro connectivity and the no-objection certificate for the Jewar airport.‘PDA movement for social and psychological change’Story continues below this adYadav said the Pichcha, Dalit, Alpsankhayak (PDA) movement of OBCs, Dalits and religious minorities worked for social and psychological change. He further said he launched the PDA movement to bring together peedit, dukhi, apmanit (victims, disappointed, and insulted) people.He said he felt pained when the chief minister’s residence was washed with Ganga water after the SP lost power and when a temple was washed with the water after his visit.Giving a call to defeat the BJP, Yadav said the Constitution faced a threat under the saffron party’s rule. “The BJP is not a political party, it’s a gang of people with negative, divisive, and discriminatory ideology,” Yadav said. “Nagaratmak vichardhara mitao, samvidhan bachao (remove negative ideology, save the Constitution).”Atul Pradhan—a Gurjar—said that the BJP Government had hatched a conspiracy to erase Mihir Bhoj’s legacy by removing Gurjar from his name, but Yadav was firm that “Mihir Bhoj was a Gurjar”.Story continues below this adRally convener Raj Kumar Bhati said Yadav had purified Bhoj’s statue by performing an abhishek with Ganga water.The SP selected the rally venue considering its success in the 2012 elections, for which it had launched the campaign from the same district with a cycle rally. In the 2012 Assembly elections, the party decisively won 224 out of 403 seats, defeating the BSP.Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politics of the Hindi Heartland, tracking BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and other parties based in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Covered the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024; Assembly polls of 2012, 2017 and 2022 in UP along with government affairs in UP and Uttarakhand. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:SP Akhilesh YadavUttar Pradesh assembly elections