Senior Congress leader and Bareilly MP Imran Masood has issued an urgent appeal to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav to finalise a pre-poll alliance for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections without further delay. Speaking at a public event in Bareilly, Masood emphasised that the Congress party remains indispensable in any concerted effort to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party's dominance in the state.
Masood, who has been actively involved in Congress campaign strategies across western Uttar Pradesh, warned that the window for strategic negotiations is narrowing. "Every day of hesitation strengthens the opposition's positioning and weakens ours," he said, referring to both the Aam Aadmi Party's growing outreach in the state and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen's ambitions among minority voters.
The Congress leader specifically addressed concerns about what he described as misleading proposals from AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Masood urged voters and party workers not to be swayed by last-minute alliance overtures that, he argued, lacked the institutional backing and electoral track record of the Congress-SP partnership. "People should not be distracted by empty promises from those who have consistently underestimated the strength of a unified opposition," Masood stated.
Political analysts note that Congress and SP had a contentious relationship during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, where seats were not fully negotiated before elections, leading to fragmented opposition votes. The memory of that episode continues to shape calculations ahead of 2027. Both parties' high command teams are believed to be engaged in informal discussions, but no official announcement on seat sharing has been made yet.
Masood's intervention comes at a time when the Indian National Developmental Institutional Alliance (I N D I A) bloc is attempting to consolidate its anti-BJP front at the state level. With UP's 403 assembly constituencies and significant Muslim population, alliance arithmetic is expected to be closely watched by all major players.
