LUCKNOW: With the UP Assembly polls just a few months away, the Samajwadi Party is treading cautiously, especially when it comes to its image and perception among the people.
On Diwali day, the party’s national general secretary and Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle, Shivpal Yadav, issued a stern warning to partymen. In no uncertain terms, he told the party cadre to be disciplined and not indulge in making any boisterous claims about government formation in order to prevent the BJP from trying to tarnish the party’s image among voters.
“If any party worker threatens people by saying, ‘We will deal with you once our government comes to power’, the district president should immediately expel him from the party,” Shivpal said.
Even the party chief, Akhilesh Yadav, had cautioned party leaders against making aggressive statements a month ago.
With the 2027 Assembly elections just three months away, the SP fears that the BJP could deliberately provoke its leaders into making inflammatory remarks and then use them to corner and discredit the party by calling it a hub of rowdy elements.
This fear is not misplaced. Notably, before the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP had already built a narrative against the SP by highlighting statements made by its MPs and MLAs and linking the party’s red caps with hooliganism.
As a result, the SP failed to perform as per its expectations. Although it raised its tally by 64 seats in the Assembly and increased its vote share by more than 10 percentage points, the BJP and its allies managed to form the government with 273 seats.
Akhilesh is so watchful of the party’s image that after the recently concluded MLC elections to 11 seats in the state, the SP chief congratulated the victorious candidates and cautioned them not to indulge in celebrations to such an extent that BJP elements could stealthily enter, create lawlessness and accuse the SP of going berserk over its victory.
“Stay calm, celebrate your victory, but only peacefully through social media instead of giving the BJP a chance to get into the revelries, create a ruckus and label the SP as a party of rowdy elements,” he told the newly elected MLCs.
It may be recalled that after the defeat in 2022, Akhilesh Yadav changed his strategy and moved away from the party’s MY (Muslim-Yadav) equation, coining the acronym PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) and introducing a new formula based on backward classes, Dalits and minorities.
The SP leadership claims that the effectiveness of this formula was evident in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as the party rose from five MPs to 37 in the Lok Sabha, with greater representation from non-Yadav and non-Muslim communities.
“In fact, both Akhilesh and Shivpal know that the PDA formula will remain strong only if the party is seen as ‘decent’ and ‘disciplined’ among the public. If the SP continues to carry its old image of ‘strong-arm tactics’, it will struggle to win the trust of Dalits and the most backward communities,” says Dr AK Verma, a socio-political scientist.
In October this year, the SP chief had convened a meeting of party spokespersons, asking them to improve their lingo. He also played old video clips of Rajkumar Bhati, Anurag Bhadauria, Ameek Jamei, Manoj Kaka and Manoj Yadav to sensitise them about their statements, which often leave the party red-faced.
Akhilesh pointed out their shortcomings and instructed them to avoid aggressive and abusive language during TV debates. He asked them to go fully prepared so that the party’s ideology and development agenda could be presented effectively.
Akhilesh had told his partymen: “We must be careful with every statement. Do not make any statement that the BJP can take advantage of.”
All these efforts are being made because the BJP has consistently been reminding people of the period before 2017.
It alleges that an atmosphere of security was established under the BJP government and that if the SP is voted to power, the pre-2017 days of rowdiness, lawlessness, anarchy and insecurity will return.
Controversial statements by SP leaders before the 2022 polls:
SP candidate Adil Chaudhary had told his supporters in Meerut: “You need not worry. We are forming the government. Inshallah, we will not spare them. The way they are oppressing us, they will be made to pay for it.”
Rafiq Ansari from Meerut had said: “The government has unleashed complete ‘Hindutva hooliganism’ over the past five years. If the government is formed, they will become goons. Believe me, the youth and Muslims of Meerut have never bowed before anyone.”
Abbas Ansari, the then SBSP candidate from Mau Sadar and son of gangster-turned-politician late Mukhtar Ansari, had said: “I have spoken to Akhilesh Yadav. No official will be transferred for six months. Whoever is posted here will remain here. First, they will be held accountable; only after that will the order allowing them to leave be signed.”
Similarly, Mahendra Singh ‘Jheen Babu’, the SP candidate from the Sevta Assembly seat in Sitapur, had said during campaigning: “If they come to our area and try to indulge in hooliganism, do they think they are bigger goons than us?”
It was not just party leaders. SP spokespersons and workers were also targeting BJP candidates in a threatening manner. They were saying: “Just wait until the election results. Let our government come to power, and then we will deal with you.”
“Cautioning the partymen is fine, but the basic instinct of the cadre does not change overnight,” says Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist, adding that the leadership may change the tone and tenor, but those working on the ground have been in the habit of being boisterous in their attitude, considering it to be their USP.
A reflection of this psyche was seen in the statement made on Diwali day this year, when SP MP from Ballia, Sanatan Pandey, defended Mulayam Singh Yadav’s decision to order firing on kar sevaks in Ayodhya.
He said: “If the then Chief Minister, Netaji, ordered firing to protect the Constitution of India, it was absolutely the right step. Had this not been done, the structure or the temple could have been damaged. This could have created a situation similar to a civil war in the country. Therefore, the order to open fire was given only to protect the Constitution, and it was the most appropriate decision he took then.”
As soon as his statement came to light, the BJP seized the opportunity, and Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak hit back, saying that although his name was ‘Sanatan’, his thinking was completely anti-Sanatan, anti-Ram and anti-Hindu.
As the controversy grew, Pandey backtracked the very next day. He held a press conference in Ballia to clarify his remarks, saying: “I never said that we had ordered the firing. I was only saying that Netaji had unwavering faith in the Constitution.”
Sanatan Pandey said: “Netaji did what he thought was right to uphold the constitutional system. I have not said anything wrong.”
In September this year, the SP organised a ‘PDA conference’ in Gopamau town of Hardoi, where former SP district president Sharafat Ali targeted Premavati PK Verma, the BJP-backed district panchayat chairperson.
“If Mulayam Singh Yadav had not strengthened the reservation system, Premavati would have been washing clothes at a dhobi ghat today,” Ali said, and his statement went viral on social media.
“I am proud of my Dhobi caste. Do I look like someone who washes clothes? My parents educated me. I became a teacher and later entered politics,” says Premavati, who also lodged an FIR against Sharafat Ali under the SC/ST Act.
Similarly, SP national spokesperson Rajkumar Bhati made a controversial remark about the Brahmin community during a book launch event in Delhi in May 2026.
“A Brahmin is no better than a prostitute, and no one is worse than a Brahmin! Some prostitutes may be decent, but no Brahmin is,” he took a jibe at the community.
BJP leaders called the statement an insult to the Brahmin community. An FIR was subsequently registered against him at Kavi Nagar police station in Ghaziabad. As the controversy grew, Rajkumar Bhati issued an unconditional apology.
However, regarding the party’s strategy, SP national spokesperson Dr Ashutosh Verma says that the BJP was always looking for opportunities to damage the SP’s image. “That is why the party’s top leadership had asked its leaders to be careful while speaking.”
“During the MLC elections, when SP candidates were winning, Akhilesh Yadav had issued strict instructions. He had told party workers not to indulge in any kind of disorder or lose their composure in the heat of the moment,” says Verma.
“This is completely different from the perception of the party that the BJP tries to portray. It is an effort to present a better picture of the party among people and assure them that there would not be any lawlessness upon coming to power. Shivpalji’s caution is also in the same context,” says Verma.