How BJP hopes to turn Uttar Pradesh UCC promise into electoral support ahead of 2027 assembly elections

At the BJP's state executive meeting in Lucknow on October 30, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would be implemented in Uttar Pradesh if the BJP-led NDA returned to power for a third consecutive term after the 2027 assembly elections.

The promise is not new as Shah had said in Parliament and at a public meeting in Mumbai on September 13 that the UCC would be implemented in all 21 BJP and NDA-ruled states before 2029.

However, the issue is likely to generate a sharper political debate in Uttar Pradesh than in other states. Muslims account for nearly 20 per cent of the state's population, and the proposal is expected to face opposition from sections of the community, and political parties.

The UCC, envisaged in the Directive Principles of State Policy, seeks to establish a common set of personal laws governing matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, irrespective of religion.

The status of the UCC varies across states as Uttarakhand was the first to implement it, while Gujarat and Assam have enacted legislation. Other BJP-ruled states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, have also taken steps towards introducing a common set of personal laws.

Wherever, the BJP has remained in power for long periods have moved faster on the issue. Gujarat has been governed by the party since the mid-1990s, while Madhya Pradesh has had BJP governments for much of the period since 2003. The party has also been in power in Uttarakhand since 2017 and Assam since 2016. In Uttarakhand, the UCC was an election promise in 2022.

Progress has been less consistent in states where governments have changed more frequently. This suggests that the BJP is more likely to pursue the UCC where it has a stable government and the political space to implement it. Now, Uttar Pradesh, where the party has been in power since 2017, fits this pattern.

What makes Shah's announcement significant is that the BJP had not made the UCC a prominent election promise in Uttar Pradesh in 2022, even though the state is central to its national political strategy. The party had promised to implement the code in neighbouring Uttarakhand but left it out of its Uttar Pradesh manifesto. At the time, the legal, administrative and political challenges of implementation were still being tested.

Having pursued the issue in other states, the BJP now appears ready to make it a major campaign theme in Uttar Pradesh.

The timing also reflects the challenge posed by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's PDA strategy, which brings together backward, Dalits and minorities. The formula emphasises caste representation and seeks to consolidate communities whose voting patterns contributed to the BJP's reduced tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The UCC allows the BJP to shift the debate towards an issue on which it has a more established political position. In his Lucknow speech, Shah referred to the firing on kar sevaks in Ayodhya in 1990 and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's action against the mafia, placing both alongside the promise of a uniform code. The references indicate an attempt to connect the UCC with the party's established themes of religious identity, law and order and nationalism.

The BJP may also benefit if the opposition responds by making the UCC a central point of confrontation. Strong objections from the Samajwadi Party or the Congress could help the BJP keep the issue in public debate. The party can then present the election as a contest over competing approaches to personal laws and religious identity, rather than allowing the campaign to focus primarily on caste representation and social justice.

The debate over a uniform code has faced resistance at the national level from several groups, including tribal communities concerned about the possible impact on their customs and traditions. Pursuing the legislation state by state has offered the BJP a more practical route, allowing it to address implementation within individual states rather than attempting a single national framework.

For the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the UCC also provides a clear campaign message around which its leaders and workers can mobilise. The party's challenge will be to turn that message into electoral support while countering the opposition's focus on caste representation and social coalition.