Samajwadi Party: The SP, which had its previous best showing in 2004 (35 seats), has emerged as the single-largest party in the most populated state and the third-largest nationally.
Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) has had its greatest Lok Sabha election showing yet, winning or leading in 38 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats following a succession of electoral defeats since 2017. SP had the greatest strike rate among the larger parties. It won or was leading in 38 of the 62 seats it contested. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won only 32 of the 76 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav
The SP, which had its greatest showing in 2004 (35 seats), is now the single-largest party in the most populated state and the third-largest overall. It was instrumental in decreasing the ruling BJP’s seat count in Uttar Pradesh to 32 from 62 in 2019.
The SP-Congress combination won or was leading in 44 seats, compared to 36 for the BJP-led National Democratic combination (NDA) in the state.
The SP gained 35 seats in 2004, when its founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav, led the government in Uttar Pradesh. It has increased its tally despite being out of power for seven years.
The SP boosted its vote share to 33.38%, up from 18.11% in 2019. In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the SP increased its vote share to 32.1%, and its seat count rose to 111 from 47 in 2017.
In 2022, the SP started broadening its support base beyond its traditional Muslim-Yadav vote bank by forming a caste coalition that included non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Yadavs, Dalits, and Muslims. Akhilesh Yadav referred to this alliance as PDA, representing pichada (backward communities including non-Yadavs), Dalits, and alpsahkhyaks (minorities). In June, he initiated a PDA caste census bus yatra across the state.
Samajwadi Party
Yadav, who promoted the caste census as a route to social justice, based the ticket distribution strategy on the PDA formula and caste census to counter the BJP’s Hindutva and Ram Mandir platforms.
The SP allocated 17 seats to the Congress, which also supported Yadav’s demand for a caste census. In preparation for the 2024 elections, the SP reorganized its national and state executives, assigning most positions to non-Yadav OBCs, Dalits, Muslims, and Yadavs. This approach was also applied to ticket distribution.
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The SP allocated tickets to 27 non-Yadav OBCs, five Yadavs, 15 Dalits, four Muslims, and 11 upper-caste leaders. Additionally, the SP assigned the Bhadohi seat to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The SP-led alliance disregarded the BJP’s focus on Hindutva, the Ram Temple, and Hindu-Muslim issues, instead prioritizing social justice, youth, unemployment, paper leaks, the caste census, and the economy.