Lucknow, September 24, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav is set to launch the party’s PDA Rath Yatra from Rae Bareli on Thursday as part of its outreach ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
The choice of Rae Bareli, a traditional Congress stronghold and the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, has drawn political attention as the SP and Congress prepare for the upcoming Assembly polls. Both parties are constituents of the INDIA bloc.
Yadav will travel on a specially designed saffron-coloured rath made from a bus. The campaign is aimed at taking the SP’s PDA — Pichhda (backward classes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities) — social coalition to the grassroots ahead of the elections.
The SP has previously strengthened its organisational presence in the region, with senior party functionaries Indrajeet Saroj and Anand Bhadauria appointed as in-charges of the Amethi and Rae Bareli parliamentary constituencies.
The launch comes at a time when the political coordination between the SP and Congress in Uttar Pradesh is being closely watched. The two parties have not yet finalised their seat-sharing arrangement for the 2027 Assembly elections, although SP leaders have publicly indicated that the alliance remains in place.
The selection of Rae Bareli is particularly significant because the SP currently holds three of the five Assembly segments under the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency — Bachhrawan, Harchandpur and Sareni — while Rae Bareli and Unchahar are represented by BJP MLAs, according to current reports.
Differences between leaders of the two alliance partners have also surfaced publicly. SP MP Iqra Hasan and Congress MP Imran Masood have exchanged views on the respective roles of their parties and leaders in the opposition space.
Hasan has argued that the SP has a significant role to play in Uttar Pradesh, while Masood has emphasised Rahul Gandhi’s national political reach. Their remarks have added to speculation over the political positioning of the two parties ahead of the Assembly elections.
At the same time, the SP and Congress leadership have continued to signal that the alliance remains under consideration, with seat-sharing talks expected to determine the contours of their electoral arrangement in Uttar Pradesh.
The Rae Bareli launch will therefore serve both as an organisational mobilisation by the SP and as an early indicator of how the two parties position themselves ahead of negotiations for the 2027 polls.
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