While rifts have widened in the Opposition INDIA alliance in the wake of its debacle in the recent Bihar Assembly elections, tension also seems to be rising between its two major constituents, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where they are going to contest the panchayat and Legislative Council (MLC) elections separately.
The three-tier panchayat polls in UP are slated for early 2026, while the elections to 11 MLC seats would take place in November 2026.
Speaking to The Indian Express, UP Congress president Ajay Rai said, “For us, the most important task at present is to build a strong party cadre in all the 403 Assembly seats in UP. The decisions on our alliances are taken by the Congress high command and I would not comment on it, but it is true that we are preparing to contest both the panchayat and MLC elections alone.”
Noting that the UP panchayat elections are not contested on party symbols, Rai said the Congress has decided to issue a centralised list of party-backed candidates from the state party headquarters in Lucknow to publicly project its faces in the rural poll fray.
Besides fighting the ruling BJP-led NDA, both the INDIA allies will also take on each other in the MLC polls for 11 seats, which will be held in the graduate constituencies of Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut and Allahabad-Jhansi, along with teacher seats of Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Bareilly-Moradabad and Gorakhpur-Faizabad.
The MLC elections will also not be fought on party symbols, but the elected candidates will be included in the parties’ respective tallies.
While the SP has already declared its several candidates for the MLC polls, the Congress has also identified its nominees, sources said. These polls are especially significant for the SP, whose three MLC seats are falling vacant with the party requiring at least the same number to retain its Leader of Opposition (LoP) position in the 100-member Upper House in the state.
The two INDIA partners had together pulled off an impressive performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in UP, winning 43 of 80 seats as against the NDA’s 36 seats. However, their relations have since got increasingly strained.
In the Bihar elections, SP president Akhilesh Yadav did not campaign for the Congress, although he canvassed for the lead INDIA player RJD there. SP sources said the Congress had not requested Akhilesh to campaign for its candidates.
In February this year, in the Delhi Assembly elections, which saw a triangular battle between the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), BJP and Congress, the SP threw its support behind the AAP, which was then a part of the INDIA grouping. A few months after its loss to the BJP, the AAP walked out of the INDIA bloc.
With the Opposition grouping in disarray, especially after its Bihar rout, many within the SP and the Congress seem concerned about the state of their alliance in the run-up to the 2027 UP elections.
Recently, at a press conference in Mumbai, Maharashtra SP leader Abu Azmi, announced that his party would go solo in all the elections, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, in the state. He also accused the Congress of showing “arrogance” in the alliance, adding that it was “pulling the grand old party down”.
An SP leader from UP alleged, “The Congress wants to grow by riding on its allies but does not want to let its partners grow. In states, where the Congress’s allies are weak, it does not accommodate them. But in states where its allies are stronger, the Congress seeks their support. We have suffered because of this in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.”
While both the SP and the Congress maintain that their alliance for the 2027 UP elections is still on, they have continued to blame each other for the chill in their ties, accusing each other of being “arrogant”.
“Samajwadi Party shows itself to be forthcoming but it is very arrogant and does not want to make efforts in taking our alliance along. Forget about the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results – a lot has changed after that and no one can say that our relationship would remain intact in 2027 without putting in any efforts,” said a Congress leader.
The Congress has been focusing on its cadre building exercise for the last one year as part of its organisational overhaul campaign, “Srijan Ahbhiyan”, which is being supervised by AICC general secretary in charge of UP Avinash Pande. The party, which has already constituted its block and district committees across UP, is trying to revive and rejuvenate itself in the state. It also believes that its “good show” in the panchayat and MLC polls would strengthen its hand for driving a hard bargain with the SP during their seat-sharing negotiations for the 2027 elections.
When asked about the Congress’s allegations, senior SP leader Udaiveer Singh, told The Indian Express, “Our policy in alliance is very clear. We want to strengthen INDIA alliance to fight against anti-constitutional, anti-social justice force, BJP. We give priority to supporting an ally in a state, which is relatively stronger in the fight against BJP,” explaining why the party decided to support the AAP or Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Delhi and West Bengal respectively.
Singh also said, “In UP, which is our prime state, we are stronger and think that we can fight NDA and BJP better. In this scenario, all we expect is our other partners to support us.”
The Congress highlights its “key role” in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in UP, saying that it helped the Dalit votes to consolidate in favour of the INDIA alliance. Both partners had sealed the 2024 seat-sharing pact smoothly. The 2027 elections may be a different ball game, though.
“Unlike the Lok Sabha polls, convincing our ticket aspirants to drop out for our ally’s candidates would not be that easy in Assembly elections in UP. Thus, working out a seat-sharing formula would be more challenging in the Assembly elections. However, there is still time and the polls in between would make things clearer,” said a Congress leader.
The SP and the Congress had contested the 2022 Assembly polls separately, getting 111 and 2 seats respectively.