Samajwadi Party widens its challenge to BJP in Uttar Pradesh council polls
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The Samajwadi Party won five of 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh’s legislative council elections, breaking through in Lucknow and Varanasi while exposing cracks in the BJP’s grip on key constituencies.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) secured five of the 11 seats contested in Uttar Pradesh's latest legislative council elections, a result the party says reflects a clear shift in public mood ahead of the 2027 state assembly polls. The victories came in three graduates’ constituencies and two teachers’ constituencies, with wins in Lucknow and Varanasi—areas long treated as BJP strongholds but now showing visible signs of political fatigue with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP remained the largest party overall, holding six seats, but it lost the Lucknow graduates, Varanasi graduates and Varanasi teachers contests. SP candidates Maan Singh Yadav, Kanti Singh and Ashutosh Sinha defeated their BJP rivals by margins of 27,663, 17,127 and 19,932 votes respectively, underscoring the scale of the setback for the ruling party.
In a congratulatory message, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav described the result as a “double defeat” for the BJP’s “double-engine” government and linked the outcome to long-standing concerns among teachers, students and unemployed graduates. He asserted that the party’s PDA coalition of “Pichhda, Dalits, Alpsankhyak” now enjoys 95 percent support, presenting the result as evidence that marginalized communities are moving away from the BJP.
BJP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the party will review its performance and candidate selection after the setbacks in Lucknow and Varanasi. The party retained seats in Meerut and Bareilly-Moradabad teachers’ constituencies, indicating that the council results did not amount to a complete rejection of the ruling party, even as its dominance was clearly dented.
Uttar Pradesh minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar suggested the results reflected the preferences of more literate voters rather than the broader electorate, acknowledging the BJP’s difficulty in winning over that segment. The SP plans to use the council victories to energise its organisation and boost its vote share in the upcoming 2027 assembly elections.