Yogi Adityanath's Public Outreach Intensifies Ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections

With Uttar Pradesh slated for the Assembly elections in February 2027, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has intensified his public outreach, criss-crossing the regions across the state. Since May, Adityanath has toured more than 44 of UP’s 75 districts in order to inaugurate or lay foundation stones of various projects meant for 115 Assembly constituencies, of which the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance had led in about 58% segments in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In the parliamentary elections, the BJP’s tally in the state plunged from 62 of 80 seats to 33 while the SP and the Congress bagged 37 and six seats respectively. These projects worth a total of over Rs 38,000 crore include various development and infrastructure projects such as roads, schools, hospitals, power and water facilities, panchayat bhavans, and tourism and skill programmes, among others. At these events, the CM also distributed aid to beneficiaries of welfare schemes. Short films on development of the district concerned in the last nine-and-a-half years of the Adityanath-led BJP government were also screened there. An analysis of the 115 Assembly segments shows that the SP-Congress combine was in the leading position in 67 of them (SP in 54 seats, Congress in 13 seats) in the 2024 parliamentary polls. The BJP led in 47 of these segments while its ally RLD was ahead in one seat. In contrast, in the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP bagged 71 of these seats with its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party winning three and two seats respectively. The SP won 33 of them while its then allies RLD and SBSP got 3 and 2 respectively, with the Congress getting one seat. The SBSP switched to the BJP-led NDA soon after the Assembly elections while the RLD joined the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP bagged 255 of the state’s 403 seats as against the SP’s 111 with the Congress getting just two seats. Areas Yogi has visited On August 24, Adityanath visited Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, to inaugurate completed projects and lay foundation stones of new ones, running into a total of Rs 879 crore, for its three Assembly segments — Bachhrawan, Harchandpur and Rae Bareli. The Congress led in all these segments in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, in the 2022 Assembly polls, the BJP had won Rae Bareli while the SP had picked the other two seats. On July 26, the CM attended an event in Mainpuri to announce projects worth Rs 682 crore in its two Assembly segments — Mainpuri and Karhal. Karhal is an SP bastion from where party president Akhilesh Yadav , currently the Kannauj MP, had won in the 2022 Assembly elections. His wife Dimple Yadav had taken lead in both Karhal and Mainpuri segments on her way to a resounding win from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in 2024. In the high-stakes Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha constituency, where the BJP suffered a stinging loss at the SP’s hand, Adityanath launched development projects for Bikapur, Rudauli and Dariyabad Assembly segments, where SP MP Awadhesh Prasad had taken decisive leads in 2024. The CM launched projects worth Rs 810 crore for Rudauli and Bikapur. He also inaugurated other projects there for the Ayodhya municipal corporation area. Adityanath has also unveiled a significant chunk of development projects in Gorakhpur district, his home turf. On July 23, he inaugurated or laid foundation stones of 14 projects worth Rs 995 crore for the Gorakhpur Urban Assembly seat, which elected him an MLA in 2022. In different visits, Adityanath also rolled out projects for the Pipraich, Chillupar and Khajani Assembly segments of Gorakhpur district. While the BJP had won all these seats in 2022, it led in Pipraich and Khajani seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls while the Congress was ahead in Chillupar. The BJP candidates, Ravi Kishan and Kamlesh Paswan, had won from the Gorakhpur and Bansgaon parliamentary seats respectively in 2024, which are both in Gorakhpur district. Overall, since May, the CM has launched in Gorakhpur district projects worth a total of Rs 4,387 crore for its Assembly segments including Pipraich, Gorakhpur Urban, Khajani, Chillupar, Gorakhpur Rural besides the belts of the municipal corporation as well as the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority (GIDA). Attacks on SP, Congress While launching various projects in these districts over the last four months, Adityanath also addressed public meetings there, where he slammed the SP and Congress on different issues. Inaugurating projects worth over Rs 569 crore for the Barkhera and Bisalpur Assembly constituencies in Pilibhit on June 29, the CM said, “The people have punctured the Samajwadi Party’s cycle (its poll symbol) because if this cycle runs, it will only trigger riots, impose curfews, and compromise the safety of daughters and traders.” He also said, “Had the Congress leadership stood firm and let Jinnah die his natural death, the country would not have been partitioned, and lakhs of Hindu families would not have been forced to leave their homes and land. Even after Partition, the Congress remained engaged only in Muslim appeasement, and Hindu society continued to suffer the consequences of its sins.” Addressing a public meeting in Ayodhya’s Bikapur Assembly seat on July 10, Adityanath alleged that during the previous governments “Inhone hamare pavitra Hanumangarhi ki seedhiyon par namaz padhwane ka karya kiya tha. Kalpana kijiye, kya koi Jama Masjid mein Hanuman Chalisa ka paath karwa payega? Kya Samajwadi Party ya Congress yeh karwa payegi? (They had got namaz offered on the steps of the sacred Hanumangarhi. Imagine, can anyone have the Hanuman Chalisa recited inside Jama Masjid? Can Samajwadi Party or Congress make that happen?)”. The BJP had won both Barkhera and Bisalpur seats in 2022 while leading there in 2024 too. The party had also won Bikapur seat in 2022, but the SP took the lead there in 2024. “All these are government programmes where the CM laid the foundation stones of new projects and inaugurated already completed projects offering various facilities to the people. It is like an unannounced campaign ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. The BJP’s role in these events is mobilisation of crowds for public meetings,” said a state party leader. A government functionary said, “The CM has so far toured all regions of UP. Soon he will hold similar programmes in remaining districts.” Decoding segments The 115 Assembly segments are part of 43 Lok Sabha seats, of which the SP and the Congress had bagged 21 and three seats in 2024 as against the BJP’s 17 and the RLD’s two seats. The three Congress seats include Rae Bareli, Saharanpur, and Barabanki. The 21 SP seats comprise Akhilesh’s family strongholds such as Mainpuri, Etawah, Azamgarh and Firozabad besides Rampur, Ghazipur, Fatehpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti, Kairana and Jalaun, among other seats. These BJP Lok Sabha seats include Agra, Gorakhpur, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Kushinagar, Pilibhit, Hathras, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Deoria, Aligarh, Jhansi and Maharajganj, among others. The two RLD seats are Baghpat and Bijnor. Apart from launching projects in 44 districts, Adityanath has also rolled out various new programmes in Lucknow and Prayagraj districts in recent months.