Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has quietly buried the ghost of Bihar’s 2025 electoral disaster and signalled a sharp strategic overhaul for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly battle: no more reckless alliances that splinter the anti-BJP vote.
Party insiders confirm that Akhilesh, stung by the Bihar experience where a fragmented Opposition handed the NDA a comfortable victory, has drawn a red line – SP will either lead a compact, disciplined rainbow coalition or go it alone rather than allow multiple “secular” claimants to carve up the same vote bank. “Bihar taught us that ego clashes and over-ambitious tie-ups only gift-walk the saffron brigade. That mistake will not be repeated in UP,” a senior SP leader quoted Akhilesh as telling a closed-door meeting of district presidents last week.
The new mantra is, “one district, one strong anti-BJP candidate”, even if it means painful seat sacrifices. Sources say Akhilesh has already opened back-channel talks with Congress, RLD and smaller caste-based parties, but with a non-negotiable condition: no parallel candidates in any constituency. The SP chief has reportedly told Congress leaders that if Rahul Gandhi’s party wants an alliance, it must accept a junior partner role in UP, unlike the overreaching demands that wrecked Bihar.
Akhilesh’s confidence stems from SP’s improved strike rate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and a resurgent PDA (Pichhda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak) narrative. “2027 will be about consolidation, not division. We will not let BJP win on 32% again,” he reportedly declared.
With 15 months still to go, the former CM has kick-started village-level chaupals and youth rallies, determined to turn Bihar’s bitter lesson into Uttar Pradesh’s sweetest revenge.