E-Paper
BJP gets going for 2026 semi-finals before 2027 battle
The BJP is gearing up for the 2026 panchayat polls with a strategy focused on booth-level outreach and voter registration, aiming to recover from past election losses.
: Coining the slogan ‘purva tayari - poorna tayari’ (advance preparation, complete preparation), the BJP has started micro- management by reaching out to every booth for the panchayat polls that are about eight to nine months away.
The BJP has activated its workers in every village at the booth level and the cadres have started moving door -to-door to register voters.
For the BJP’s top brass, the panchayat polls in 2026 are the semi-finals before the crucial assembly polls in 2027.
Reaching out to party workers in every district, BJP state general secretary (organization) Dharamal Singh has taken up the mantle to ensure that the party shines in all the 75 zila panchayats.
“The party has made a strategy to reach out to the rural voters by activating the booth committees, divisional units and Shakti Kendras. The importance of panchayat elections is being explained to workers by holding meetings in each district,” said BJP state vice-president Santsh Singh.
The party is focusing on zila panchayat seats and not on gram panchayat and kshetra panchayats.
“As panchayat elections are not held on the party’s symbol, the BJP will focus only on the zila panchayat seats. The party will not interfere in the elections of gram pradhan and kshetra panchayat members to avoid any controversy,” a party leader said.
“The maximum controversy and animosity is for the elections of gram pradhan and kshetra panchayat. Most of the party workers want to become pradhan or kshetra panchayat members. In such a situation, to avoid controversy, the party has decided not to interfere in the election of gram pradhan and kshetra panchayats,” he added.
“The first test for the recently constituted booth committees, mandal units and Shakti Kendra s will be the panchayat polls. The party leadership has conveyed that the outperforming workers will be rewarded,” said a BJP leader.
The party is also apprising villagers of various welfare schemes of the state government.
The state leadership of the party is also viewing panchayat polls as an opportunity for a major course correction after the poor performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.
In a bid to counter the Samajwadi Party’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak) formula, the BJP too will focus on the local caste matrix at the mandal and village level.
The BJP’s seriousness about the panchayat polls is not without reason.
In four successive poll victories in Uttar Pradesh—2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and 2017, 2022 assembly polls – the BJP managed the most diverse representation minus Muslims.
The party succeeded in keeping intact its caste umbrella, broadly non-Jatav Dalits, non-Yadav OBCs and upper castes, in four polls in Uttar Pradesh.
However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the SP’s PDA plank succeeded in bringing a large chunk of OBC and Dalits into its fold, dealing a blow to the BJP.
The BJP’s tally of seats in Uttar Pradesh came down to 33 in the last Lok Sabha election from 62 in 2019.
The most resounding defeat was in the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, the nerve of centre saffron politics revolving around the temple town of Ayodhya.
Panchayat elections
Total gram panchayats-57,694
Kshetra panchayats-826
Zila panchayats-75
