SP-Cong to contest 2027 U.P. polls jointly, hints Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday gave clear signals that his party will contest the 2027 UP assembly polls in alliance with the Congress.

Akhilesh used “INDIA alliance” to make his point instead of directly taking name of the Congress. For all purposes, in U.P. INDIA bloc means only the SP and the Congress and the two parties had jointly bagged 43 seats in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

If the Congress and the SP stay together in 2027, this will be the third time in UP that the two parties will contest the polls together since Akhilesh took over the reins of the SP. Before 2024, it was in 2017 that the two parties contested the UP assembly polls jointly.

Though the narrative of ‘UP Ke Ladke’ back in 2017 had failed to leave any significant mark, both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress fared well when they contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as partners under the INDIA alliance.

The SP and Congress together had bagged 43 seats of the total 80 in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP and its allies could win 36. Within this, the SP emerged as the single largest party with 37 seats relegating the BJP to the second position with 33 seats. The tally was: The SP: 37 and its ally Congress 6; while the BJP won 33 and its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) bagged 2 seats and Apna Dal (S) got only one while one seat went to Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) that was not part of any alliance.

The PDA (Pichda Dalit Alpsankhyak) of SP combined with the ‘Constitution protection’ strategy worked for them in the last year’s general election.

Addressing a press conference in Prayagraj on Sunday, the SP chief said: “The PDA will uproot the BJP” from the state in the 2027 assembly elections. He was in Sangam city to attend the wedding of SP state president Shyam Lal Pal’s daughter.

Attacking the BJP, he alleged that it was trying to grab land like the mafia through the Waqf Act. When asked about the INDIA bloc, he reiterated, “INDIA alliance is (present) and will remain”, dispelling doubts about the fate of the alliance formed ahead of the 2024 general elections.

“The BJP brought the Waqf Amendment Bill so that it can snatch away land. Wherever they see land, they occupy it,” he alleged. Yadav also criticised the BJP’s handling of the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, promising a probe into “mismanagement” if his party comes to power.

“The Mahakumbh 2025 will not be known for management but for the mismanagement of the BJP government,” he alleged. Yadav further alleged that the BJP government had failed on all fronts, including maintaining law and order and providing jobs.

The SP chief alleged that the ruling party was adept in hiding truth and spreading lies. He also alleged that today the government was running merely on propaganda.

He alleged that drones and CCTV surveillance failed during the Mauni Amavasya stampede. Yadav was in Prayagraj to attend the wedding of SP state president Shyam Lal Pal’s daughter.

“Whatever suggestion came from our side (for holding the Mahakumbh) as we had got the opportunity to organise the 2013 mega fair, the BJP considered it criticism solely due to its negativity,” he claimed.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was responsible for creating a divide in the society as it believed in the ‘policy of divide and rule’.

The SP chief criticised the recently passed Waqf Act, questioning its relevance to the problems faced by farmers. On West Bengal violence, he alleged that though probe was on but BJP activists had a role to play behind any act of violence.

Regarding SP MP Ramji Lal Suman’s controversial statement on Rana Sanga, Yadav said, “The history which shows each other as superior and inferior, the history which stops our progress, that history should be allowed to remain.”

He provided journalists with a booklet of his suggestions for the Prayagraj Mahakumbh 2025, originally posted on social media, and a Harvard University study on the 2013 Prayagraj Kumbh.

Slams BJP MP over remark on SC

The SP chief also slammed BJP over its MP Nishikant Dubey’s recent remark at Supreme Court, noting that whatever Dubey said actually reflected the thinking of his party.

‘CM turned Mahakumbh into political event’

He accused the CM of turning the Mahakumbh into a political event. Yadav also claimed that the CM planned to use the event to project himself as the next prime ministerial face. “It is being heard that during the Mahakumbh, it was their plan to announce his (Yogi Adityanath) name as PM’s face,” he claimed.