BSP Eyes Revival In Uttar Pradesh: Mayawati Chooses Ayodhya To Launch 2027 Campaign

Pushed to the fringes of Uttar Pradesh's electoral politics after a string of poor electoral performances, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is set to launch her party’s campaign for the 2027 Assembly elections from Ayodhya on June 22.

According to BSP sources, Mayawati will address a public rally in Ayodhya before holding another meeting in neighbouring Ambedkar Nagar district the following day.

“The party has lined up a series of rallies in different parts of the state over the next few months in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections,” a BSP leader said on Saturday.

The choice of Ayodhya as the starting point of the campaign is politically significant. Besides being home to the Ram Temple, the constituency has a sizeable Dalit population, which is believed to have played a crucial role in Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad's victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Prasad, a Dalit leader, defeated the BJP candidate in one of the most closely watched contests in the country, while the BSP was pushed to third place.

A senior BSP leader associated with preparations for the rally said the choice of Ayodhya was deliberate.

“The BJP has tried to project Ayodhya as its exclusive political territory. By beginning our campaign from there, Behenji wants to make it clear that the BSP will fight politically in every part of Uttar Pradesh and among every social group. Ayodhya belongs to everyone, not to any one party,” the leader said.

By launching her campaign from Ayodhya, Mayawati appears to be signalling that the BSP is willing to engage with issues of faith while continuing to foreground its traditional agenda of social justice and representation for marginalised communities.

Ambedkar Nagar is equally important for the BSP because of its substantial Dalit population and the presence of influential OBC communities, both of which have historically formed the backbone of the party’s social coalition.

Party sources said senior leaders have been instructed to ensure a massive turnout at both rallies. 

State BSP president Vishwanath Pal has been tasked with overseeing mobilisation efforts.

The rallies are expected to mark the beginning of an aggressive organisational campaign aimed at reviving the BSP’s fortunes ahead of the 2027 polls. Sources said the party is likely to announce candidates for several Assembly constituencies later this month in an attempt to gain an early advantage over its rivals.

Hoping to Emerge As “Kingmaker”

According to party insiders, Mayawati, who has repeatedly asserted that the BSP will contest the next Assembly elections on its own, believes a triangular contest involving the BSP, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party could improve her party’s prospects.

“Behenji is clear that the BSP will go solo. The objective is to ensure that the next election remains a three-cornered contest. The party believes it can improve its position significantly and at least emerge as a kingmaker in a fractured verdict,” a senior BSP functionary said.

Wooing OBCs, Muslims Back to BSP A Formidable Task 

The campaign comes at a time when Mayawati is attempting to rebuild the organisation after a prolonged period of internal churn involving her nephew Akash Anand. Once projected as her political heir, Anand was stripped of key responsibilities amid internal differences before being brought back into the party fold. BSP leaders insist that organisational unity has now been restored and that the party is preparing for a long electoral battle.

According to Asad Rizvi, a Lucknow-based political expert, the challenge before the BSP, however, remains formidable. “Once the principal challenger to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP has steadily lost ground over the past decade as a section of its traditional Dalit support base shifted towards the BJP, while Muslim voters increasingly consolidated behind the Samajwadi Party,” he said.

The result has been a sharp erosion of the BSP’s electoral footprint despite retaining pockets of support across several regions of the state. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BSP won 19 seats with a vote share of around 22 per cent. Its performance deteriorated further in 2022, when it secured just one Assembly seat and saw its vote share fall to 12.8 per cent, its worst showing in the state since emerging as a major political force.

The decline continued in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the BSP failed to win a single seat in Uttar Pradesh, raising fresh questions about its ability to regain relevance in a political landscape increasingly dominated by the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.

“For Mayawati, the Ayodhya rally is more than the launch of an election campaign. It is an attempt to demonstrate that the BSP remains relevant in Uttar Pradesh's rapidly evolving political landscape and can still shape the contours of the political contest,” added Rizvi.