Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party is all set to showcase its ‘ Ayodhya ’ (part of Faizabad Lok Sabha seat) victory in the 2024 polls and recently concluded Varanasi win in MLC elections (Teachers and Graduate Constituencies) to spice up its election campaign for the 2027 UP Assembly polls. Of the 11 MLC seats that went to polls, the SP bagged five – an addition of two seats as compared to its previous tally. Though the SP only retained the Varanasi Teachers and Graduate constituency seats, the upbeat party cadres are already coining phrases and slogans to showcase the victory as an achievement and an indicator of the political landscape in place for the 2027 Assembly polls.
He said the BJP lost the two seats both in the initial counting and the subsequent recounting as well. Posters and hoardings showcasing the two wins have already come up outside the SP headquarters hours after the party candidate was declared the winner from the two Varanasi seats. The catchline not only focused on the party’s win in temple towns of Ayodhya and Kashi but also the fact that candidates from the PDA spectrum emerged victorious in the two elections. Ayodhya MP Awadhesh Pasi happens to be a Dalit while Lalbihari Yadav (of Other Backward Classes) and Ashutosh Sinha (Upper Caste) complete the caste bouquet of the SP’s PDA plank. The SP retaining the graduate and teacher seats in Varanasi – represented in the Lok Sabha by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – makes the achievement important for the SP strategists. The SP also bagged the Agra teacher seat, the Allahabad-Jhansi graduate seat and the Lucknow graduate seat. In a post on X, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav described the party’s win in Varanasi as a ‘double defeat’ for the BJP .