The remarks have sharpened early bargaining inside the opposition camp well before formal negotiations begin. Gautam, who took charge of Congress affairs in the state after replacing Avinash Pandey, has argued that Congress must receive equal respect as a national party and cannot be treated merely as a junior partner in the alliance.
His intervention comes at a sensitive stage for both parties. The Samajwadi Party remains the dominant opposition force in Uttar Pradesh after winning 37 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, while Congress won six under the same alliance framework. The performance helped the opposition bloc dramatically reduce the BJP’s tally in the country’s most electorally important state, giving both parties an incentive to preserve the partnership.
The challenge lies in translating a successful parliamentary arrangement into a state election formula across 403 Assembly constituencies. The Samajwadi Party will be expected to press its claim as the larger organisation on the ground, while Congress is trying to use its national profile, Dalit outreach and improved Lok Sabha showing to negotiate from a stronger position.
Gautam’s appointment is being read as part of a wider Congress effort to rebuild its social base in Uttar Pradesh, particularly among Dalits, non-dominant backward communities and voters who once formed the backbone of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s rise. He also heads the Congress Scheduled Castes department and has positioned social justice, constitutional protections and representation as central themes in the party’s campaign work.
The Congress has been seeking to regain relevance in a state where its organisation has weakened over several election cycles. In the 2022 Assembly election, it won only two seats and polled just over 2 per cent of the vote. The Samajwadi Party won 111 seats, while the BJP secured a clear majority with 255 seats. Those figures give Akhilesh Yadav’s party a strong argument for leading the opposition challenge in 2027.
Congress leaders, however, believe the 2024 general election changed the terms of engagement. The party’s victories in Rae Bareli, Amethi and four other constituencies restored some confidence after years of decline. Rahul Gandhi’s win from Rae Bareli also gave Congress a high-profile anchor in Uttar Pradesh, even though the party remains far behind the Samajwadi Party in legislative strength and booth-level depth.
Gautam’s equal-share pitch appears designed less as a final demand than as an early negotiating marker. By raising expectations before talks begin, Congress is attempting to avoid a repeat of arrangements in which it received only a limited number of seats and had little room to expand. The party is also signalling to its workers that it intends to contest the state election as an active player rather than as an appendage to the Samajwadi Party.
For the Samajwadi Party, the calculation is more complex. It must keep the alliance intact to prevent opposition votes from splitting, especially in constituencies where Muslim, Yadav, Dalit and other anti-BJP votes overlap. At the same time, it will be cautious about conceding too much space to a partner that lacks a comparable Assembly presence and organisational reach in most districts.
The Congress’s renewed Dalit emphasis adds another layer to the equation. The Bahujan Samaj Party, once a formidable force in Uttar Pradesh, fell to one seat in the 2022 Assembly election and struggled again in the 2024 Lok Sabha contest. Congress sees an opening among sections of Dalit voters who may be looking beyond Mayawati’s party, but that space is also contested by the Samajwadi Party’s broader PDA pitch built around backward classes, Dalits and minorities.
Gautam has also sought to keep the door open for wider anti-BJP coordination, including by appealing to Mayawati to join forces against the ruling party. That proposition remains politically difficult, given the BSP’s history of maintaining distance from both Congress and the Samajwadi Party in recent elections. Still, the appeal reflects Congress’s effort to frame the 2027 contest as a wider social coalition rather than a two-party negotiation.
