As an MP for four terms since 2012, she kept a low profile until recently, and was seen as the eyes and ears of her husband. Whenever one met her, she would always ask for feedback on what was happening in Delhi, and listen intently to what you had to say. Smart leaders rely on their informal modes of information to augment what they hear through their official channels.
Now, the low-key Dimple seems to have suddenly decided to shed her reticence. It was she, not Akhilesh, who went to Jantar Mantar to meet the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protesters and the fasting Ladakh leader Sonam Wangchuk to express solidarity with them.
You see reels on Instagram and Facebook of Dimple outside Parliament’s Makar Dwar engaging with media persons. She has spoken persuasively inside the Lok Sabha on behalf of her party on different subjects – ranging from alleged “chanda chori” at the Ayodhya Ram Temple to Gen Z protests over exam paper leaks. She sits next to Akhilesh at press conferences in Lucknow when he makes important announcements — as she did recently when he proposed the Stree Samman Samriddhi Yojana, pledging Rs 40,000 a year to every eligible woman in the event of the SP’s win in the 2027 UP elections.
Every party has caught on to the “M” (Mahila) mantra for winning elections. It is not surprising that Dimple would greenlight the SP’s sops for Mahila voters. But her importance goes beyond that – she is an image-softener for a party accused of being “aggressive and rough” when in power. The BJP has consistently accused the previous SP regime of “lawlessness and hooliganism”.
The Dimple touch and her calm approach seem to be part of the image makeover that Akhilesh is trying for his party. The 48-year-old Mainpuri MP is doing it steadily as she comes into her own and gets the spotlight.
Battle for UP
It goes without saying that the UP polls, slated for February 2027, are critical for the BJP and RSS as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The cloud of “chanda chori” allegations has dented the Sangh Parivar’s image as few things have done in recent years. It is another matter that the Jantar Mantar protest and its aftermath sent these allegations into the background.
UP is also the Nehru-Gandhi family’s traditional turf as well as the adopted karmabhoomi of Modi, who chose to retain Varanasi even though he had also won from Vadodara in 2014.
The stakes are equally high for Akhilesh, 53. If he loses the 2027 polls, he will be staring at another stint in the Opposition. Being out of power for 15 years could be debilitating for any leader, even though Akhilesh is still a relatively young leader.
For some time, Akhilesh has been trying to expand the SP’s base beyond its MY (Muslim-Yadav) moorings. His “PDA” (Pichda, Dalit and Alpasankhyak) strategy paid the party rich dividends in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as he fielded only five Yadavs (all members of the SP first family), giving most of the tickets to candidates from the non-Yadav OBCs. Dalits also bought into the Opposition’s narrative then that the BJP might change the Constitution and dispense with the reservation regime if it gets “400 paar” seats.
The SP chief is aware of the space that could open up for the party in the 2027 polls, with Mayawati’s BSP on the wane and discontent brewing among a chunk of Dalit voters. A section of Jatavs had also voted for the SP in 2024.
Akhilesh’s game plan
As part of his new strategy, Akhilesh has added another “P” to his PDA, stating that it also refers to Pandits (Brahmins) besides Pichda. He announced this at the birth anniversary of the late socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra in Lucknow in early August. A trishul-carrying Akhilesh remembered “Chote Lohia”, as Janeshwar was called, amid the recitation of Shiv Tandav Stotram – signalling his efforts to reach out to Brahmins and create a new rainbow coalition.
Brahmins account for about 10% of UP’s population. In power or out of it, they have always wielded influence far beyond their numbers. When Akhilesh first came to power in 2012, as the cycle-riding, red-capped, new SP leader, the party had won in over 50 of around 100 seats in the state, where the Brahmin community plays a significant role in the polls.
Five years earlier, in 2007, when Mayawati formed the government in UP on her own, she had successfully created a Dalit-Brahmin axis, with a large number of Brahmins voting for her. But after Modi’s rise, Brahmins rallied behind the BJP.
However, of late, there have been signs of dissatisfaction among sections of the upper castes with the BJP – be it over the UGC norms or the caste census, both seen as pro-OBC moves, or the NEET paper leak and the consequent anti-quota debate hotting up in the country.
The Congress could have been a natural claimant to the Brahmin vote in UP, if it had a robust organisation. After all, it was Indira Gandhi who had effectively crafted the Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim coalition to the party’s advantage. But Rahul Gandhi is chasing a different dream, pursuing the support of the OBCs-Dalits-minorities in the Hindi heartland.
Unlike his father and SP founder Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh is not shy of adopting Hindu symbols. He has spoken of Sanatan Dharma as “uniting people”, publicly recited “Hanuman Chalisa” (like AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal), and organised the Brahmin sammelans. An Akhilesh-headed trust is building the Kedareshwar Mahadev temple in Etawah, the home turf of the Mulayam family, which is expected to be completed before the 2027 elections.
Accused of “minority appeasement”, Akhilesh has tried to steer his party away from the “anti-Hindu” and “pro-Muslim” image that the BJP would project. His strategy for the 2027 polls is to mainstream the party along with Dimple, expand PDA to include Brahmins, identify with Hindu interests while upholding minority rights, and pursue the social justice objectives.
This is a tall order. The success of Akhilesh’s plans will depend not just on what he does but also on what his allies, like Rahul Gandhi, would do. For it may not help Akhilesh if he woos the upper castes and Rahul tears into Manusmriti, which could lead to their consolidation for the BJP.
(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide.)
