New Delhi: The decision of the Samajwadi Party and Congress to contest the 2026 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections separately has raised fresh questions over the cohesion of the INDIA bloc in the state, barely months before preparations intensify for the 2027 Assembly elections.
The two parties had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together in Uttar Pradesh and projected the alliance as the principal challenge to the BJP. SP president Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly maintained that the INDIA bloc remains intact. However, the ongoing MLC elections from graduate and teachers’ constituencies are presenting a different political picture on the ground.
In key constituencies such as Lucknow, Varanasi and Agra, both parties have fielded their own candidates, resulting in direct contests between alliance partners. Political observers say the move weakens the opposition narrative of unity at a time when the BJP is attempting to consolidate its position ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.
Congress has announced candidates in Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra and Meerut-Saharanpur, while the SP has also fielded nominees in the same or adjoining constituencies. In Lucknow graduate constituency, the SP has fielded Kanti Singh while Congress has named Dr Devmani Tiwari. In Varanasi, both parties have entered the fray in graduate and teachers’ constituencies. Similar contests are emerging in Agra and adjoining regions.
The elections are politically significant because they are the last major electoral contest before the 2027 Assembly election. Though the electorate is limited to graduates and teachers, political parties traditionally view these polls as a test of organisational depth, cadre mobilisation and urban intellectual support.
Unlike Assembly elections, voter lists in graduate and teachers’ constituencies are prepared afresh before every election. Candidates and parties spend months enrolling voters and building personal networks.
Political analyst Rajendra Kumar said the elections often reveal the actual organisational chemistry between alliance partners.
“These are educated electorate elections where coordination matters a lot. If opposition parties are unable to arrive at seat-sharing even in limited electorate constituencies, questions about larger electoral coordination naturally arise,” he said.
The separate contests have also triggered speculation within political circles about distrust between the SP and Congress over future seat-sharing arrangements for 2027. Congress leaders have increasingly been asserting the party’s independent political identity in Uttar Pradesh after its improved Lok Sabha performance, while the SP appears reluctant to concede more political space to its ally.
Political observers say the Congress may be attempting to rebuild its presence among urban and upper caste educated voters through these elections, constituencies where the party historically enjoyed influence before its decline after 1989. The SP, meanwhile, is trying to protect and expand its existing footprint in the Legislative Council.
The absence of an alliance may particularly benefit the BJP in triangular contests where opposition votes could split. The BJP currently dominates the Upper House with 79 members, while the SP has 10 members. Of the 11 seats going to polls in December 2026, six are currently held by the BJP and three by the SP.
The BJP has already announced candidates for five seats and started preparations months in advance. Opposition parties, however, are heading into the elections without a united strategy despite repeatedly asserting the need for opposition consolidation against the BJP.
Within opposition circles, some leaders privately admit that the MLC elections represented an opportunity for the SP and Congress to test a coordinated structure before 2027. Instead, the separate contests have exposed unresolved tensions within the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh.
For now, the alliance may formally remain intact, but in Uttar Pradesh’s politically sensitive graduate and teachers’ constituencies, the unity is no longer visible on the ground.
Candidates in fray
The BJP on Sunday announced five candidates for the 2026 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections after approval from the party’s central election committee. BJP general secretary Arun Kumar Singh released the list comprising two graduate constituency candidates and three teachers’ constituency nominees.
The party fielded Avneesh Kumar Singh from the Lucknow graduate constituency and Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh from the Agra graduate seat. For teachers’ constituencies, the BJP retained Dr Hari Singh Dhillon from Bareilly-Moradabad, Umesh Dwivedi from Lucknow and Srichandra Sharma from Meerut. All five are sitting MLCs.
The Samajwadi Party has so far announced 10 candidates and retained three sitting members. Lal Bihari Yadav has been renominated from the Mirzapur-Varanasi teachers’ constituency, while Man Singh Yadav from Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituency and Ashutosh Sinha from Varanasi-Mirzapur graduates’ constituency have also been repeated.
The SP has fielded Kamlesh from the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ constituency, Kanti Singh from Lucknow graduates, Pramendra Bhati from Meerut-Saharanpur graduates, Dr Prakash Chandra Gupta from Agra-Aligarh, Haji Mohammad Danish Akhtar from Bareilly-Moradabad, Shashank Yadav from Agra teachers’ constituency and Nitin Kumar Tomar from Meerut-Ghaziabad.
Congress has announced five candidates. The party has fielded Arvind Singh Patel from Varanasi, Raghuraj Singh Pal from Agra, Dr Devmani Tiwari from Lucknow, Vikrant Vashishtha from Meerut-Saharanpur and Sanjay Rai Priyadarshi from the Varanasi teachers’ constituency.
