By Manjunath K. Shresthi
youtube.com/@theflagpost
October 10, 2025
The north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is India’s largest state, with 403 MLAs & sends 80 Lok Sabha MPs to Parliament. It next goes to the assembly polls in early 2027, with close to 15 months left.
The Samajwadi Party members (SP) early this week were elated. It’s firebrand minority leader Azam Khan, a native of Rampur was released from jail. The BSP, too had lined up a big event in state capital city Lucknow on October 09. The occasion was the 19th death anniversary of party founder Late. Kanshiram.
The Ramabai park, witnessed one of the largest gathering seen in recent times by the followers of BSP’s Behen Mayawati. The event had strong political messaging by the BSP, that it still could turn the politics in the state to its advantage. The BSP supremo, has been the Chief Minister for four times. And the cadre and supporters assembled there, wished that she should become the CM for the fifth time.
Behenji last held the Chief Minister’s post of Uttar Pradesh from 2007-12. And in the last 13 years, her political graph has nosedived. In the assembly & Lok Sabha polls held in 2022 & 2024 respectively. The BSP currently has little or no representation in the state assembly and in Parliament.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has filled in the political void and has been putting a brave front against the saffron party. Akhilesh Yadav, was Chief Minister from 2012-17; and since 2017 till date, the BJP under Yogi Adityanath is ruling the state.
Why did Behenji praise CM Yogiji?
During her long speech, she said that, “the current dispensation in the state took care and maintained the structures of her icons, she built in their honour during her tenure as the CM”. But she went allout in criticising the Samajwadi Party & Akhilesh Yadav. That they remember PDA & Dalit icons only when in power.
Is Behenji doing mike testing, or is she marching to someone else’s tune?
In the 2022 assembly polls, the SP won 111 seats. And in the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) polls, they won 37 of the 80 seats. The highest tally ever won by the party. Is the BJP worried of the SP’s increasing popularity in the state?
Will Behenji continue the momentum of addressing rallies in different parts of the state? Or will she confine herself to celebrating birth & death anniversaries? Will she be able to win a large number of assembly seats? Or will she be contented to increase her vote share amongst different sections of society & thereby affecting the SP’? And if she succeeds in containg the SP, will it be ‘Advantage BJP & Yogi Adityanath’ ?
Does Samajwadi Party’ have a ‘Plan B’?
The BJP has sold it’s double engine & bull dozer model in the state. And it repeats about the improved ‘Law & Order’ in the state. As a result, they have cultivated a dedicated section of followers & grassroot supporters. And with Behenji getting active in the state, this may directly affect the Samajwadi Party’s poll prospects?
