'SP will be down to 47 seats in next polls': UP deputy CM on Akhilesh Yadav's 'monsoon offer'

Lucknow: Countering Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's "monsoon offer", Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Friday said that the BJP will repeat its 2017 assembly poll performance in the next elections and bring the SP down to 47 seats again.

Maurya, in a post on X, said that the Samajwadi Party was a "sinking ship" and that Yadav's remarks were outlandish "dreams".

Amid speculation of a rift in the Uttar Pradesh BJP, the Samajwadi Party president on Thursday, in a cryptic post on X, seemed to be asking ruling BJP MLAs to switch sides to form a new government in the state.

"Monsoon offer: Bring hundred, form government," the former chief minister said.

While Yadav did not name anyone in his post, a senior SP leader said on the condition of anonymity that it was a message for those in the BJP who were dissatisfied with Adityanath and wanted to cross over.

In response, Maurya on Friday posted, "The people and workers will cap the monsoon offer at 47 in 2027." Without naming anyone, he added, "A sinking ship can dream Mungerilal's sweet dreams, but they cannot be fulfilled.

"We will repeat 2017 in 2027 and for the 'lotus' (BJP's poll symbol) government again," the deputy chief minister said.

In the 2017 UP assembly elections, the BJP recorded a resounding victory by winning 312 seats while the incumbent SP was reduced to a mere 47 seats.

The speculation about a rift in the BJP's state unit was fuelled by Maurya's post on X on Wednesday, in which he said that the party is bigger than the government.

He also urged all ministers, MLAs and public representatives to respect party workers.

On Tuesday, Maurya had met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi but neither the BJP nor the deputy chief minister said anything about the meeting.

There has long been a buzz about less-than-warm relations between Maurya and Adityanath.

In private conversations, a number of BJP leaders from the state, including those who lost in the Lok Sabha polls, have been critical of the chief minister's working style and cited it as one of the reasons for their loss.