Several leaders from the BJP, BSP and other parties, along with their supporters, joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Lucknow on Friday, with party chief Akhilesh Yadav describing the influx as the beginning of a larger shift ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Senior SP leader and MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav said the party’s reach was growing across districts and expressed confidence that it would form the government in 2027 under Akhilesh’s leadership. Yadav urged SP leaders, workers and PDA guards to remain vigilant at polling booths on October 17 and 24, ensure eligible voters were included and watch for fake entries. Prominent among those who crossed over to the SP at the party headquarters were former BJP MP Rajpal Saini, Vidup Agrahari, son of former MP Shyamacharan Gupta, BJP leader Ravi Pratap Singh from Badaun, Harveer Malik from Shamli, Shan-e-Ali, son of former minister Riaz Ahmad and a former BSP candidate from Pilibhit, and Thakur Nand Kishore Pundir, a former BSP candidate from Ghaziabad. From western UP, the list included Kamal Gautam, Azad Samaj Party in-charge for the region, Shokendra Acharya of the Nishad Party, and several RLD leaders from Shamli — Sanjeev Pradhan, Rajendra Malik, Bijendra Malik and Shubham Malik — along with Rajendra Singh and Siwan Saini, a former Khatauli leader. “The more love and unity there is in the PDA family, the stronger it becomes. Meanwhile, at a press conference, the SP chief reiterated his allegations that the BJP was conspiring with the Election Commission to manipulate electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SSR), which followed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). He questioned why another revision was being conducted so soon after the SIR had been completed. “This SSR is the reverse of RSS. The BJP, in collusion with its Election Commission, is hatching new conspiracies and plots,” he alleged.
The SP president said people from the Pal, Kashyap, Prajapati and Dalit communities had also joined the party. Leaders joining the Samajwadi Party is just the start,” he said. He said the party did not oppose the revision process itself but was against what he alleged were attempts by the BJP to manipulate voter lists.
