The 2027 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are almost one and a half years away, but the principal opposition in the state, the Samajwadi Party, is geared to give the ruling BJP a tough contest in the coming panchayat and assembly polls.
The SP has also drawn up its PDA (Pichhara, Dalit, Alpanshayak) strategy to enforce during the three-tier panchayat polls next year, but the main target of the Akhilesh Yadav-led party will be the 2027 assembly polls.
A senior SP leader said that party president Akhilesh Yadav was very serious about the future elections, whether they are panchayat or assembly.
“The party will give tickets to the candidate around one year before the assembly polls and will ensure that whoever gets the ticket has the highest winnability chances,” he said.
Talking about the alliances, the leader, who is very close to the party president, made it clear that though INDIA Alliance partners will be on board, they will not be given more than 50 to 60 seats. “As we are aware that except for the SP, no other party has the capability to defeat the BJP, hence this time other INDIA alliance partners will have to rally behind the SP,” he stressed.
Mentioning specifically Congress, the SP leader said, “Everyone knows what Congress can do alone. Compare the results of the 2022 assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. So they will have to support the SP and should be satisfied with the seats on which they can win comfortably,” he added.
SP spokesperson and MLC Rajendra Choudhury said that the party is geared for both — panchayat and assembly polls — and expressed the hope that this time there will be a change in the regime.
Meanwhile, SP Mahila Sabha has launched a campaign distributing postcards to women across UP, enabling them to directly address their concerns to party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
The postcards are pre-printed with a photo of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on one side and “A message to National President Akhilesh Yadav” on the other.
SP Mahila Sabha national president and former minister Juhie Singh said, “The SP Mahila Sabha members are distributing postcards to women during PDA panchayats and other meetings of the Mahila Sabha in the state and encouraging them to write their issues and expectations directly to our party chief Akhilesh Yadav Ji. The postcards can be sent directly to the party office while we are also collecting these cards from them and depositing them at party headquarters.”
Approximately 15,000 postcards have been distributed among the women voters of the state so far, including 5,000 that the party has received from women writing about their woes, issues, and hopes.