Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister O.P. Rajbhar on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, publicly questioned the dissolution of the Samajwadi Party (SP)'s Kannauj district unit, arguing that the move was politically damaging for SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who represents the constituency as a Member of Parliament and also serves as the party's National President.

The Kannauj Dissolution — Why It Matters

Rajbhar drew a pointed analogy to drive home his argument. “He is the Member of Parliament from there, and he is also the National President of the party. So, it is concerning when a party unit is dissolved from such an area. For example, if it is PM Modi’s program and the party unit in the constituency is dissolved, questions will be raised about PM Modi,” he said.

Rajbhar further argued that the dissolution was evidence of Yadav’s waning grassroots influence in his own parliamentary bastion. “The Kannauj program is evidence that the people of Kannauj have sidelined Akhilesh Yadav, and he will face the consequences in the 2027 elections,” he added. The minister also cited a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally held in Kannauj in May and June, which he claimed drew more than 4,000 attendees — a figure he offered as a contrast to SP's organisational troubles in the region.

Rajbhar Backs Owaisi's Charge on Azam Khan Meeting

Rajbhar also endorsed remarks by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who had alleged that Akhilesh Yadav failed to support jailed SP veteran and former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Mohammad Azam Khan when it mattered. Yadav is scheduled to meet Azam Khan on 22 October.

Rajbhar claimed the timing of the visit was purely tactical. “Azam Khan has been in jail for a long time, but this is the only time Akhilesh Yadav is going there to meet him,” he said, suggesting the meeting was driven by electoral calculations ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections rather than genuine solidarity.

Sharp Attack on Akhilesh's Leadership Style

Taking aim at what he described as Yadav’s detachment from ground-level party work, Rajbhar asked rhetorically: “If he himself cannot step out of the world of air-conditioned rooms, press conferences, and Twitter, what are the local leaders supposed to do?” The remark underscored a recurring BJP line of attack — that the SP chief has failed to build a street-level organisation comparable to what his predecessors established.

In a separate post on X (formerly Twitter), Rajbhar invoked the legacies of Yadav’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and uncle, Shivpal Singh Yadav, crediting them with building Kannauj into an SP stronghold through sustained grassroots effort. He advised Akhilesh Yadav to reflect on the state of the party under his own stewardship.

Pattern of BJP Targeting SP's Kannauj Foothold

This is not the first time Rajbhar has gone on the offensive against Akhilesh Yadav. The minister has previously alleged that the SP will be wiped out in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The focus on Kannauj is deliberate — if the SP struggles to maintain organisational cohesion in its leader’s own parliamentary seat, it signals deeper structural vulnerabilities ahead of the state polls. Notably, Kannauj has long been regarded as the symbolic heartland of the Yadav family’s political empire, making the unit’s dissolution a reputationally sensitive moment for the party.

With the 2027 Assembly polls drawing closer, political friction between the ruling BJP and the SP in Uttar Pradesh is set to intensify.