Those who love to scroll political reels are surprised to find Aditi Yadav, the daughter of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, trending in the digital space with the videos of the 21-year-old canvassing for her mother Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri finding traction on the Internet. Old men could be seen putting a pagdi (a symbol of succession) on Ms. Aditi’s head. This soft approach is new for the followers of the party where earlier videos of Netaji (Mulayam Singh), Mr. Yadav, and Chacha Shivpal Singh Yadav, set to muscular music, used to dot the digital space.
While Juhie Singh, party spokesperson and national president of the party’s Mahila Sabha, described Ms. Aditi’s tour “as a young student spending her summer holidays in a meaningful fashion”, observers see it as part of the party’s calibrated approach to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continued outreach towards women voters whom he has described as one of the four castes that he prioritises.
The SP president is countering it in his speeches by saying that the A in his PDA pitch stands not just for Alpsankhyak (minority) but also aadhi abaadi (half-population for women). His speeches are laced with slogans like aadhi aabadi, poora haq (half population, total rights). Though SP rallies hardly have any women, Mr. Yadav is making a concerted attempt to reach out to a vote bank that has eluded the party in the past, by raking up the PM’s silence on Manipur.
