UP MLC poll results spell defeat for BJP’s anti-education policy: Opposition leaders

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav addresses a press conference at the party’s office in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. | Photo credit: PTI

As the Samajwadi Party won five of the 11 Legislative Council seats contested in the Uttar Pradesh election, INDIA’s opposition bloc on Thursday said the result was a defeat for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s anti-teacher and anti-education policies. Despite massive administrative support for BJP candidates, the results indicate growing public dissatisfaction with the BJP government, opposition leaders said.

“This is a double defeat of a twin engine. The BJP’s defeat in the Legislative Council elections has paved the way for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to be held in 2027,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X. “On the one hand, it represents a defeat for the anti-teachers, unemployed, graduates of the BJP who also espouse anti-educated and anti-unemployed policies. Their verdict is the way the BJP has pursued and humiliated every community, lumped all the oppressed together into the 95 percent because those who suffer are PDAs,” he said.

“BJP faces an existential crisis”

The SP president alleged that the six seats won by the BJP in the Legislative Council polls were due to fraud and manipulation. “The BJP has become a loser. In Varanasi, the BJP lost first in the counting and then again in the recounting, which means the counting was done twice and both times the BJP and its allies lost. This has triggered an existential crisis within the BJP because everyone in the party knows that even the seats it won were won by fraud,” he said.

“The internal divisions within the BJP have fueled the conflict of the two engines. Hence, the BJP candidates have completely lost the courage to contest the Assembly elections. The BJP, which used to conduct candidate surveys, is now looking for candidates with binoculars, but no one is visible,” Mr. Yadav said, adding that voter awareness and unity will become the “decisive basis”27 to form a decisive government27.

SP won five seats through its candidates Kanti Singh (Lucknow division graduate seat), Lal Bihari Yadav (Varanasi division teacher seat), Akash Agarwal (Agra division teacher seat), Asutosh Sinha (Varanasi division graduate seat) and Man Singh Yadav (Jhansi-Prayagraj graduate seat). In the previous Council elections held in 2020, the party won only three seats.

“Educated Voters Are Against BJP”

The Congress said the opposition’s victory in five seats signaled resentment towards the BJP even among its core support base, despite blatant abuses by the state apparatus and officials.

“We have seen how the administration has delayed the counting of many seats including Varanasi and Gorakhpur. Since the beginning of the election campaign, the BJP has been favored by the administration. Despite this, the SP-Congress alliance has won five seats. This signals how the educated sections of the society are fully against the BJP and are waiting for the 2027 polls to defeat BJP national secretary Shahnawaz,” he said.

Published – 29 Oct 2026 23:05 IST