As Akhilesh shifts to Lok Sabha, SP looks to balance caste, oratory factors for new UP LoP

Days after registering its best-ever Lok Sabha poll performance in Uttar Pradesh, winning 37 out of 80 seats, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is now grappling with the problem of choosing a new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly.

The current LoP from the SP is party chief Akhilesh Yadav, the Karhal MLA, who has now resigned from his membership of the Assembly to retain the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, which he won in the recent parliamentary polls.

The SP’s best performance prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was in 2004, when it had won 36 seats under the leadership of party founder and then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

A senior SP leader said despite the party’s stellar performance now, Akhilesh’s priority would be to take the Lok Sabha mandate forward and ensure that the support of the people is retained in the 2027 Assembly polls too. “Therefore, the party needs an LoP who can effectively replace Akhilesh, who is all set to retain his Kannauj Lok Sabha seat,” the leader said.

Akhilesh had contested the Karhal Assembly seat in 2022 after quitting as the MP from Azamgarh, a seat which the BJP wrested from the SP in the subsequent bypoll but lost in the recent elections. The SP had emerged as the second largest party behind the BJP in the 2022 UP polls, winning 111 Assembly seats, following which Akhilesh had assumed the LoP post.

Observers say that the SP currently lacks an aggressive orator among its legislators in the Assembly who can react quickly and raise objections on various issues when required. Also, the party lacks a tall leader like Akhilesh, behind whom the MLAs would always rally.

While the SP’s senior-most leader Azam Khan was disqualified from the Assembly following his conviction in a case, former