Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are scheduled to be held in early 2027. Samajwadi Party and its President Akhilesh Yadav are busy preparing for the elections. The party, which has been out of power in UP for a year, is this time preparing to corner BJP on issues like Ram temple, job, education, electricity and DAP fertilizer. To form a hat-trick government, CM Yogi Adityanath is continuously touring the districts and reviewing them, while Akhilesh Yadav has also entered the field to give a tough challenge.
However, this time Samajwadi Party is not only cornering BJP on the issues but is also keeping a close eye on its alliance partners. For this he is working on a strategy. Akhilesh Yadav has made it clear in his many previous statements that he will not be influenced by the way his colleagues are putting pressure on him.
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Big hint about alliance
In fact, the SP chief is continuously expanding his PDA formula to win the UP assembly elections. While addressing a public meeting on the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Maharani Avantibai Lodhi in Kasganj on Sunday, he made a big gesture about his alliance.
Talk of alliance regarding Jayant Chaudhary
During this, he took on Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary and said that we did not know from where the alliance people had come. Regarding Jayant Chaudhary, the former Chief Minister said, 'We made such alliances that who knows where the alliance partners came from. We made Rs. 250 rupees, yet they left us. Imagine how many people have left us.
'We will trust the people and the public'
Meanwhile, Akhilesh said, 'When the Samajwadi Party raised the slogan of PDA and talked about social justice… then this time we have decided that we will trust the people… we will trust the public. We will give respect to the public, the public will automatically help us. Therefore, we are trusting the public more than the parties.
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However, he further said, 'When BJP sees the results of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it does not sleep. How Samajwadi Party and India Alliance became number one in UP. When BJP does the math for 2024, it sees that the India alliance has won 250 seats.
Talk about India alliance but not about Congress
Actually, while talking about the elections these days, Akhilesh Yadav is mentioning about the India Alliance and the victory under its banner, but he is not taking the name of Congress. At present, Congress is the biggest alliance partner of SP in UP. Not taking the name of Congress is also a part of Akhilesh Yadav's strategy because for the last one month, every leader from the Congress in-charge to the state has been demanding 200 seats out of 403 in the alliance.
What argument is Congress giving?
Congress is continuously pressurizing SP to give more and more seats, but SP leaders are repeatedly reiterating that the decision on seat sharing in the alliance will be taken by the top leadership of both the parties. Rajendra Pal Gautam, who has been made in-charge of Congress for UP, is talking about fighting on half the seats in the alliance. The argument behind this is that Congress has won 6 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and in the meantime, Rahul Gandhi's popularity has increased and the party's organization has strengthened in the state.
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Congress in election data
But, if we go by the figures, Congress had contested the 2022 assembly elections alone under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The party had fielded its candidates on 399 seats. Congress won only 2 seats out of 399 and its vote percentage was 2.33 percent, whereas in the 2017 elections, when Congress contested the elections in alliance with SP, its vote percentage was 6.25 percent.
In view of this demand of Congress, Akhilesh Yadav has said to trust the public more than the alliance. The other aspect of this could also be that Akhilesh is giving a message to the pressure of Congress.