Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's remark on the MLC election results, claiming the latter was “secretly happy about the PDA's victory.” Maurya had on Wednesday said the BJP had not won as many seats as it had expected, adding that SP had registered victory on seats that "it should not have."
The BJP won six seats overall in the elections to 11 UP Legislative Council graduate and teachers’ constituency seats, while the Samajwadi Party secured five seats in the results announced on Wednesday. SP chief Yadav coined the term ‘PDA’, defining it as standing for the “Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (Backward classes, Dalits, and Minorities).” Yadav has positioned the ‘PDA’ communities at the core of his political strategy in UP.
The BJP suffered a setback in its strongholds of Varanasi, Lucknow, Jhansi, and the Agra region. While the party's tally was the same as in the 2020 Legislative Council election, as highlighted by Maurya, the UP deputy CM conceded that the BJP had hoped to win more seats.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP suffered a setback in its strongholds of Varanasi, Lucknow, Jhansi, and the Agra region. While the party's tally was the same as in the 2020 Legislative Council election, as highlighted by Maurya, the UP deputy CM conceded that the BJP had hoped to win more seats.
{{/usCountry}}The results for the MLC polls come months before the UP Assembly elections in 2027, and provided an opportunity for the BJP to send the message that it had regained ground, HT earlier reported. After the Lok Sabha election results in 2024, the party was pushed to the backfoot, with its tally falling from 62 in 2019 to 33. Following the 2024 results, deputy CM Maurya's cryptic post had led both the Congress and SP to claim dissent within BJP ranks in UP. Maurya's post at the time read, “Organisation bigger than government.” However, BJP's state unit had refuted speculations of any internal rift.
Deep Dive
How many seats did the BJP and Samajwadi Party win in the UP MLC polls?
Why are the UP MLC poll results seen as a warning for the BJP ahead of 2027?
What did Akhilesh Yadav say about Keshav Maurya’s reaction to the MLC results?
Also Read | Akhilesh Yadav accuses EC of deliberate delay in UP MLC poll vote count
BJP remark on SP's MLC poll wins, Yadav's ‘downfall’ response
UP deputy CM and BJP leader Maurya, speaking to reporters after the MLC election results were announced Wednesday, said, “We were expecting to win even more seats but we did not win those many. We will look into this. The SP won where it should not have.” He further said the party would “introspect” and “make efforts” to ensure that it improves its performance in the upcoming elections.
In response, Yadav said, “In fact, they are secretly happy about the PDA's victory too—no one becomes a stranger just by leaving home.”
The SP chief also mocked BJP's Gorakhpur seat win, claiming that the party had faced a “moral defeat” in the region and that the victory was the result of a “double-cross.” “If the scheming BJP folks hadn't pulled that double-cross in Gorakhpur, the same fate as in Banaras would have befallen them there too,” the Lok Sabha MP claimed in a post on X.
He added that the MLC elections had “packed up the BJP's bags and baggage”, accusing the party of “extreme dishonesty and administrative tampering.” Yadav claimed that these would not “avert BJP's downfall”, while warning, “All those corrupt officials who served the BJP will be hauled before the people's court once the PDA government takes power.”
Also Read | BJP launches ‘Sabse Unche Sardar’ campaign across UP to promote national unity
MLC election results: BJP wins six seats, SP gets five
The BJP won six seats overall, with Dr Hari Singh Dhillon retaining the Bareilly-Moradabad division teachers’ seat and Umesh Dwivedi also holding on to the Lucknow teachers’ division seat. BJP's Manvendra Pratap Singh retained the Agra graduate seat, and party candidate Dhruv Kumar Tripathi retained the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ seat.
BJP candidates Dinesh Kumar Goyal and Shrichand Sharma retained the Meerut graduate and teachers’ seats.
Meanwhile, SP retained both the graduate and teachers’ seats that it had won in 2020 in Varanasi.SP’s Lal Bihari Yadav, former leader of opposition in the legislative council, won the Varanasi division teachers’ seat for a second consecutive term, while party candidate Ashustosh Sinha won the Varanasi graduate seat.
SP's Akash Agarwal and Man Singh Yadav won the Agra teachers’ seat and the Allahabad-Jhansi graduate seat, respectively. In Lucknow, SP candidate Kanti Singh won the graduate seat.
(With inputs from Rajesh Kumar Singh)