The next major assembly elections will be held in 2027 and Uttar Pradesh will be the focus of key political parties. Now, an impromptu visit by two Congress leaders at BSP supremo Mayawati's residence has sparked speculations regarding likely coalitions in Uttar Pradesh.
On Tuesday, Congress Scheduled Caste department national chairman Rajendra Pal Gautam and the department's UP chief and Barabanki MP Tanuj Punia visited Mayawati's Lucknow residence unnannounced. However, the Dalit leaders were turned away from the gated house as they did not have an appointment.
Mayawati had previously announced that the Bahujan Samaj Party will fight alone in the 2027 assembly elections. On the other hand, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav said his party will keep its alliance with the Congress intact, adding that the focus would remain on "victory, not seats". "The same formula will work again," he said.
The Dalit leaders refuted any suggestions about a move towards a political alliance, adding that they decided to meet Mayawati as she is a senior leader of the community.
"We decided to make an impromptu visit to her without prior appointment...Party leadership did not direct us to meet her. Since she is a big leader of the Dalit community, we visited her residence to know about her health. We could not meet her since she was busy," Punia said after the visit.
Punia also denied taht they approached Mayawati to convey a message from Rahul Gandhi.
UP Congress president Ajay Rai said the Congress did not approve the visit. "Such visits are pre-decided and cleared by top leadership well in advance," Rai clarified.
Meanwhile, Congress UP in-charge Avinash Pande said the high command is aware about the incident. "The visit was not authorised from the party and the leaders have done in individual capacity. The party has taken cognisance of the matter and issued show-cause notices to the leaders who went there," he said.
