Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday, 17 July 2026, labelled the Samajwadi Party and the Indian National Congress as followers of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, in a sharp political broadside shared on his official X account.

Context

In the post, Adityanath wrote in Hindi: 'Samajwadi Party aur Congress ke log Jinnah ke anuyayi hain' — translated as, 'The people of the Samajwadi Party and Congress are followers of Jinnah.' The statement is among the most direct invocations of Jinnah's name by the Chief Minister in recent years and was accompanied by a video on his X account.

Jinnah led the All-India Muslim League and is credited with spearheading the demand for a separate Muslim homeland that resulted in the partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan. Invoking his name in domestic political discourse carries significant symbolic weight in the Indian context.

Policy Backdrop

The charge is not new to BJP's political vocabulary in Uttar Pradesh. During the 2017 and 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, BJP leaders repeatedly accused the SP and Congress of minority appeasement and questioned their commitment to nationalism. Linking opposition parties to Jinnah and the legacy of partition has been a recurring rhetorical device used to frame rivals as soft on separatism.

This pattern of historical references has appeared across multiple states when the BJP contests against SP-Congress alliances, and it serves to consolidate support among voters who associate the partition with political betrayal. Adityanath, as head of the Gorakhnath Math and a prominent face of Hindu nationalism, has been one of the most consistent voices deploying this framing.

Stakeholders and Impact

The statement directly targets two principal opposition formations in Uttar Pradesh — the Samajwadi Party, now led by Akhilesh Yadav, and the Indian National Congress. Both parties have historically contested the BJP's nationalism narrative and are expected to push back against the characterisation.

For Uttar Pradesh voters, particularly ahead of the 2027 state assembly elections, such statements are designed to sharpen the ideological contrast between the ruling BJP and the opposition. The Jinnah reference is intended to question the opposition's nationalist credentials and rally the BJP's core support base.

What's Next

Responses from SP and Congress leaders are anticipated, and any escalation in the rhetoric could set the tone for early campaigning ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. If opposition parties mount a strong counter, the exchange could dominate political discourse in the state in the days ahead.

The statement signals that BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit intends to keep nationalism and the legacy of partition at the centre of its political messaging as the next election cycle approaches — a strategy that has proven electorally effective in the state in the past.