LUCKNOW
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday challenged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to contest the upcoming Assembly elections from Ayodhya, claiming that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “nervous”.
“If the Chief Minister, who makes big claims, is so confident, then he should contest the election from Ayodhya himself,” Mr. Yadav said. He was speaking to reporters in Ayodhya after attending a religious discourse (Shrimad Bhagwat Katha) at the ancestral home of senior SP leader and former Minister Tej Narayan Pandey.
The SP had delivered a major blow to the BJP in the 2024 parliamentary elections by winning the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha seat. SP candidate Awadhesh Prasad had defeated the BJP’s two-term MP Lallu Singh by over 54,000 votes, in what was widely seen as a major political setback.
Poll promises
Accusing the BJP government of carrying out rampant demolitions in the name of development, Mr. Yadav said that if the party comes to power, it would accelerate growth without displacing locals.
“If a Samajwadi government comes to power, there will be no discrimination, and no house or shop will be demolished. We will work to ensure Ayodhya gets true international recognition,” he said. He also announced that the SP would provide ₹40,000 annually to women if voted to power.
Addressing the gathering, the SP chief attacked BJP over its “politics of division”. He alleged that the current political atmosphere was dominated by the arrogance of power, casteism, and social discrimination.
“Today, on the holy land of Ayodhya, devotees are chanting Jai Radheshyam together. For us, Lord Ram and Lord Krishna are the same. This is the beauty of our society and culture,” Mr. Yadav said.
“Today we see society full of suffering and division. There is enmity, untouchability, and a debate over pure and impure. In such times, the relevance of spiritual discourses increases as they boost the morale of the people,” he added.
“Elections are the biggest festival of democracy. When they are held, the time will come to make a decision,” he said.
Opposition’s ‘fake narrative’
Dismissing the SP chief’s challenge, state BJP leader Dinesh Dubey said, “In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, a section of voters fell into the trap of the opposition’s fake narrative. However, after the parliamentary elections, we won assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Bihar, among others. While the opposition secured seats there in the Lok Sabha, the reality is that voters soon realised they had made a mistake by backing the INDIA bloc.”
“In the upcoming U.P. polls, we will win over 300 seats. Akhilesh Yadav is living in an illusion, and reality will hit him when the results are announced,” he added.
Published – October 09, 2026 12:39 am IST
