Samajwadi Party Plans to Field 100 Dalit, Tribal Candidates in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections

The Samajwadi Party (SP) is preparing to field Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates in 14 general (unreserved) seats for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, aiming for a total of at least 100 reserved and unreserved seats combined. This includes 84 seats reserved for SCs and two for Scheduled Tribes (STs). The move is part of the party’s broader PDA plank—pichhda (Other Backward Classes), Dalit, and alpsankhyak (minorities).

Sources within the SP indicate that the strategy seeks to attract Dalit voters, who form 21% of Uttar Pradesh’s population according to the 2011 Census. The party aims to fill the vacuum left by the declining Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which won only one seat in the 2022 Assembly elections with a vote share of 12.88%, down from 19 seats and 22.23% in 2017. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP did not win any seat, and its vote share dropped to 9.4% from 19.43% in 2019.

“We are working on zeroing in on candidates from Dalit communities who can contest on general seats. While our target is to give 100 seats to the community, it will depend on suitable and strong candidates. The general seats where we are likely to give Dalit candidates tickets are those where the SP is not too strong,” an SP insider said.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SP fielded two Dalit candidates in general seats—Meerut and Faizabad (Ayodhya). Awadhesh Prasad won in Faizabad, while Sunita Verma lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Arun Govil in Meerut by 10,585 votes. Overall, the SP fielded 62 candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, including five from the Yadav community (all from the SP’s first family led by Akhilesh Yadav) and four Muslims. All nine won, along with seven Dalit candidates besides Verma and Prasad.

“The idea is to help build a narrative that the SP is willing to give SCs a larger share than the reserved seats. We had done this in the 2024 general elections too, and it had worked for us,” said a senior SP leader. Beyond reaching out to Dalits, the party also aims to shed its image of being a Yadav-Muslim party.

Other parties in Uttar Pradesh are also seeking Dalit support. The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s recent Cabinet expansion reflected a calibrated social balancing exercise, reinforcing outreach among non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits. The Congress, an ally of the SP in the INDIA bloc, is also trying to attract Dalit voters.

SP leaders express confidence that Dalits will back the party and the INDIA bloc. The PDA plank paid dividends in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the alliance won 43 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. “Akhilesh ji has been telling Yadav and Muslim leaders that the party will stick to the 2024 formula and not give too many tickets to the communities. Later, once the government is formed, leaders from these communities will be accommodated through the Legislative Council route,” said a senior Muslim community leader in the SP.

Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Lal Suman, an SP leader from the Dalit community, confirmed the party’s plans.