Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Friday that the results of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections were “just the beginning” and that the BJP had become a “flopshow”, after his party took five of the 11 seats.
Speaking to the media in Lucknow after a felicitation ceremony for the party’s newly elected council members, Akhilesh said the BJP had not lost only five seats but had faced defeat across 50 districts and towns. He alleged that the BJP won its six seats through deceit and conspiracy, and that the ruling party relies on money power while the Samajwadi Party counters it with the “power of the people”.
The 11 seats were contested in graduate and teacher constituencies, where voters are mostly educated graduates and educators. The BJP won six and the SP five, according to the final tally reported on Friday.
Earlier counts had shown the BJP ahead with six seats and the SP with three, with counting continuing in three more.
Akhilesh first reacted on Thursday in a social media post, calling the outcome the “double loss of the double engine”, a jibe at the BJP’s claim of benefiting from governments of the same party at the Centre and in the state. He said the council results had written the preface to the 2027 Assembly elections.
He pointed to Varanasi, where he said the BJP lost both the first count and the recount, and alleged that the BJP’s candidates in other seats won only through tampering.
“None of our candidates has lost,” he said, adding that those who could not win would still count as winners for the party even without certificates. He also claimed that voters had backed his party in the presence of vigilant workers during the counting, and that this unity would be the decisive foundation for forming an SP government in 2027.
The SP leader read the verdict as a message from educated, unemployed graduates and young people worried about their future, and as a mandate against the BJP’s policies on education and teachers. He also alleged factionalism inside the BJP, saying the party’s “ticket window” was empty and that it was now looking for candidates with binoculars.
Graduate and teacher council seats are contested by a limited electorate and have often been seen as a reading of mood among educated voters, though not as a reliable guide to Assembly results. In the 2022 council elections held through local body members, the BJP won 33 of 36 seats.
Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in early 2027, and the Samajwadi Party is working to present itself as the main challenger. The Varanasi contest, in the Prime Minister’s own parliamentary constituency, is likely to be cited by the party in the months ahead.
