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Amit Shah promises UCC in Uttar Pradesh if BJP returns in 2027; Akhilesh asks why it took so long
Addressing the BJP's Uttar Pradesh working committee in Lucknow on 30 October, Amit Shah said the Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in the state if the party returns after the 2027 election. He told Akhilesh Yadav the SP would stay out of power for 30 years; Akhilesh made a musical jibe.
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah has promised that the Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in Uttar Pradesh if the BJP returns to power after the Assembly elections next year. He was speaking on Friday, 30 October, at the inauguration of the party's state working committee meeting in Lucknow, held at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University auditorium and chaired by state president Pankaj Chaudhary. 'This time, when the government comes to power, UCC will be implemented in Uttar Pradesh,' he said.
The promise
Shah said the Uniform Civil Code has already been implemented in many states. The reports of the speech do not name them or describe what the Uttar Pradesh code would contain or when it would arrive. In September, Shah had said he expected the code in the 21 states ruled by the NDA before 2029. A uniform code would replace separate personal laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession with a common set of rules for all communities.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state in-charge Vinod Tawde and national general secretary Smriti Irani. It was part of the BJP's preparations for the 2027 election, where it is seeking a third consecutive term in the state.
Shah addressed Akhilesh Yadav directly: 'Akhilesh Babu, mark my words, your party will not form the government in Uttar Pradesh for the next 30 years.' He said the Samajwadi Party and the Congress had been losing elections, credited the Yogi Adityanath government with better law and order than the SP and BSP governments combined, and said riot incidents in the state have fallen by 70 per cent since the NDA came to power. He challenged the Opposition to a special session on its 'vote theft' allegations, which he said it raises after electoral defeats, and said the NDA now governs 22 states.
At a press conference the same day, the Samajwadi Party president answered with a line from an old Hindi film song, suggesting the BJP had taken a long time to raise the subject. When a reporter noted that the original lyric uses a different word, he thanked the reporter for the correction but said he would keep his own. He argued that the BJP is bringing up the code only as elections approach, even though it has governed the state for two consecutive terms. No other Opposition reaction was reported in the coverage reviewed.
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