LUCKNOW: The battle for Uttar Pradesh’s 2027 Assembly election is already moving beyond rallies and headline speeches. For the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, the immediate contest is unfolding at the booth level, where both parties are trying to rebuild networks, identify voter shifts and strengthen their grassroots machinery.
The BJP’s renewed focus follows a sharp reversal in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party won 33 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, down from 62 in 2019, while the SP won 37 and the Congress six. The results prompted the BJP to examine where its support weakened and why its strong Assembly performance in 2022 did not translate into a similar Lok Sabha outcome.
Uttar Pradesh has 403 Assembly constituencies and 80 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2022 Assembly election, the BJP won 255 seats with 41.29% of the valid vote, while the SP won 111 seats with 32.06%.
The BJP has now taken its review literally down to individual polling booths.
According to BJP sources, around 18,900 booths that the party had won in the 2022 Assembly election went against it in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, suggests BJP's internal assessment aimed to understand different voting patterns of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and the gap between its 2022 and 2024 performances.
Interestingly nearly 80% of these booths were located in rural areas, with Awadh and Purvanchal accounting for a substantial share of the erosion.
BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Vinod Tawde have been holding meetings with MPs, MLAs, district office-bearers and grassroots workers. Their discussions have focused on constituency-level weaknesses, coordination between the government and organisation, and the areas where the party faced setbacks or close contests.
Tawde’s September tour included meetings in Gorakhpur and other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Party leaders reviewed defeats in areas including Azamgarh, Mau and Basti, while seeking feedback on the reasons behind the BJP’s losses and organisational gaps.
BJP’s booth-level reset
The BJP is also confronting a problem within its own organisation. A BJP state unit vice-president said that “apathy among party workers, particularly those working at the booth level, is a major concern”, adding that booth committee presidents had been absent from meetings in several districts.
The leader said MLAs had been asked to meet booth committees and reactivate the organisation ahead of the Assembly election. The emphasis reflects the BJP’s assessment that electoral strength depends not only on statewide leadership but also on whether local workers remain active between elections.
The party’s Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, launched on September 17 and scheduled to continue until October 17, is part of this broader effort. The campaign is intended to publicise the achievements of the Modi and Yogi governments while also assessing local sentiment and mobilising workers.
The BJP’s organisational structure and the appeal of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath remain central to its strategy. Political analyst Dr Shashikant Pandey, Head of the Department of Political Science at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, said, “The BJP’s biggest strength is Adityanath’s leadership,” adding that Uttar Pradesh is among the states where votes can be mobilised in Adityanath’s name as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s.
Pandey also said: “Akhilesh has been expanding his support base for years, while Yogi and the BJP continue to rely on an organisational machine that remains unmatched.” He added that ticket distribution would be an important factor in the next election.
SP’s parallel organisational push
The Samajwadi Party is seeking to build on its 2024 Lok Sabha gains by expanding its own booth-level network. The party launched a 15-day “Youth Jodo, Booth Mazboot Karo” campaign through its student wing, SP Chhatra Sabha, beginning at Lucknow University.
The programme involves visiting universities and colleges, enrolling young people and collecting feedback for a youth-focused manifesto. The campaign is designed to connect the party’s organisational work with younger voters, who could play a significant role in the Assembly election.
The SP has separately asked its booth-level agents to add at least five new voters at every booth, according to party sources. It has also been conducting internal surveys across all 403 Assembly constituencies.
The party’s challenge is to convert its Lok Sabha performance into a durable Assembly-level organisation. Its 2024 gains demonstrated the potential of its alliance and social coalition, but the Assembly election will require sustained booth management across a much larger number of constituencies.
Why close contests matter
The importance of booth-level mobilisation is highlighted by the narrow margins in the 2022 Assembly election. Analysis of the results shows that 114 constituencies were decided by margins of less than 10,000 votes. The BJP won 63 of those seats and the SP 41.
In 15 constituencies, the victory margin was below 1,000 votes, while 10 were decided by fewer than 500 votes. In such contests, the presence or absence of booth workers, the accuracy of voter lists and the ability to mobilise supporters on polling day can directly affect the result.
The emerging 2027 contest
The BJP is responding to its 2024 setback with a booth-by-booth review aimed at identifying lost support and reviving its grassroots machinery. The SP, meanwhile, is trying to consolidate its Lok Sabha gains through youth outreach, voter enrolment and internal surveys.
The 2027 contest is still months away, but its organisational foundations are already being laid. The decisive battle may not be limited to rallies, leaders or statewide narratives. It will also depend on which party can maintain an active booth network, detect voter shifts early and turn that information into sustained grassroots engagement.
