“Take a Good Look at Him”: Akhilesh Yadav References Ayodhya Defeat in Lok Sabha

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav turned the Lok Sabha into a political theatre on Monday when BJP members tried to heckle him during the discussion on ‘Vande Mataram’. Without missing a beat, he seized the hand of sitting MP Awadhesh Prasad, forced him to stand, and told the Treasury benches: “Inko dekh leejiye. Baith jaaiye” (Take a good look at him. Now sit down). The entire House instantly understood the devastating subtext – Awadhesh Prasad is the very parliamentarian who humbled the BJP by winning the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat that includes the holy city of Ayodhya in 2024.

Yadav drove the point home by declaring that the people of Uttar Pradesh delivered a historic verdict against communal politics exactly where the BJP had launched its Ram Mandir movement decades ago. Coming months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile visit to the newly built temple, the Faizabad defeat remains a deep embarrassment for the ruling party, and Akhilesh ensured the wound was publicly reopened on the floor of Parliament in front of the entire nation.

Awadhesh Prasad, a seasoned leader from the Pasi Dalit community, has been deliberately elevated by Akhilesh as the living emblem of the Samajwadi Party’s successful ‘PDA’ (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) coalition. By consistently seating him in the front row and spotlighting him at critical moments, Yadav is systematically using the Ayodhya victory to dismantle the BJP’s Hindutva monopoly and project an alternative politics rooted in backward classes, Dalits, and minorities.

Also Read: Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav Questions Intent Behind SIR Electoral Roll Revision

In his speech, Yadav paid tribute to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore for giving India its revolutionary anthem, while accusing the BJP of attempting to appropriate every national symbol for electoral gain. He reminded the ruling party of its own 1980 commitment to secularism and Gandhian socialism, and alleged that its ideological predecessors had collaborated with British authorities instead of joining the freedom struggle. “Those who never fought for independence – what do they know about truly living Vande Mataram?” he asked pointedly.

The combination of the dramatic gesture and the cutting historical critique transformed a routine commemorative discussion into a resounding political counter-offensive, reinforcing Akhilesh Yadav’s strategy of keeping the Ayodhya upset alive and establishing Awadhesh Prasad as undeniable proof that the BJP’s most cherished narrative can be defeated on its own sacred ground.

Also Read: ‘Fraud on Democracy’: Akhilesh Yadav Accuses BJP of Using SIR to Delete Voters