LUCKNOW: As political parties scramble for support of the Brahmin community ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, Samajwadi Party is all set to host a series of Brahmin Sammelans (conclaves) at the district level from August 22. The announcement comes after Bahujan Samaj Party’s Brahmin conclave in Ayodhya on Friday.
SP national president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday held a meeting with party’s senior Brahmin leaders, including former speaker Mata Prasad Pandey and former ministers Manoj Pandey and Abhishek Misra among others, where it was decided that the party should reach out to the Brahmin community and address their issues aggressively.
It was decided that Samajwadi Prabudh Samaj wing of the party will organise meetings at the district level and interact with the Brahmin community.
Sources said the party will list issues faced by the Brahmin community at the district level and prepare a white paper on how the community has been at the receiving end of administrative high-handedness under BJP. Sources said the party plans to hold similar conclaves for other communities in the days to come.
State president of Samajwadi Prabudh Samaj Manoj Pandey, the party’s pointsman behind the Brahmin Sammelans, said tentatively it has been decided that that first meeting will be held at Siddharthnagar on August 22, followed by the second at Ballia the next day and in Auraiya on August 24.
“We are finalising the schedule keeping in mind the availability of senior leaders some of whom have prior commitments,” Pandey said.
“The meetings will be a part of a series of events that the party has been organising for over a year now,” said key member of team Akhilesh, Abhishek Misra, a former minister, who dismissed the premise that SP is organising Brahmin Sammelans taking a cue from BSP.
“We announced installing of idols of Lord Parshuram in every district about a year ago. We have identified land for the purpose in almost 50 districts and idols have already been installed in 8 districts, including Jalaun, Auraiya and Balrampur,” he said.
The party had also announced that it will install a 108-foot idol of Lord Parshuram, considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, in Lucknow.
“The idol is being made in Jaipur and will be installed in Lucknow soon,” Misra said. Reports are installation of the idol in Lucknow will be a huge event subject to pandemic protocols.
Former minister Tej Narayan Pandey, who has been at the forefront of party’s tirade against the alleged land scam by the Ram temple trust in Ayodhya, will look after the meetings of the community in and around the temple town, sources said.
