Why Akhilesh replaces Mahant with a Muslim face as Uttarakhand SP chief
Less than five months before the high-stakes Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has appointed a Muslim leader, Abdul Mateen Siddiqui, as the new president of the party unit in neighbouring Uttarakhand, replacing a mahant, Shubham Giri, who was named its working president over eight months ago.
Uttarakhand is also slated for the Assembly elections along with UP, among other states, in February 2027.
Siddiqui, 66, who hails from Nainital district, has held various positions in the Uttarakhand SP, including as its general secretary and state in-charge. He had also contested the Assembly election from Haldwani in 2007 and 2012 on the party ticket, but lost both times.
This is the first time that the SP has appointed a Muslim face as the Uttarakhand unit president.
Apart from forming a new Uttarakhand SP executive committee, Siddiqui has been asked to focus on nearly 20 Muslim seats of the state across Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital districts, where the Muslim community plays a key role in determining the poll outcome, party sources said. Muslims voters have largely supported the Congress and the BSP in these seats in several elections in the past.
“He (Siddiqui) has been appointed because Muslims are a major constituent of the electorate in these districts located in the plains of Uttarakhand. He will also work in the bordering Muslim-dominated districts of western UP for the UP Assembly elections,” said Rajendra Chaudhary, SP spokesperson and in-charge of Uttarakhand.
Who is Shubham Giri?
The SP had appointed Shubham Giri, 34, as the Uttarakhand unit working president in January this year, when the Magh Mela in Prayagraj had turned into a political battlefield as the ruling BJP and the Opposition parties like the SP and Congress took on each other over the alleged high-handedness of the UP administration towards Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the “Shankaracharya” of the Jyotirmath in Uttarakhand.
Swami Avimukteshwaranand had staged a sit-in protest after the UP police allegedly prevented him from taking a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya on January 18. The Prayagraj administration denied these allegations. Akhilesh and the Congress had extended support to the seer, attacking the ruling BJP for “disrespecting Sanatan Dharma”.
On Giri’s appointment then, the SP camp had said it was done because “the party respects all mahants, seers and saints”. His selection was also seen as an attempt to counter the BJP’s allegation against the SP for “indulging in Muslim appeasement”.
Rajendra Chaudhary said Giri’s performance as the Uttarakhand SP chief was “not satisfactory”. He has now been appointed as the state unit’s co-incharge, though.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Giri said he tried to strengthen the SP in the state and organised various programmes to connect with people. “But some people in the party got upset with me. Also, I am preparing to contest election from Pirankaliyar seat in Haridwar district. So, I requested the party leadership to free me from the responsibility of the state working president, so that I can focus on my seat,” Giri said.
Being a mahant, Giri wears saffron and lives in an ashram in Haridwar. He has been engaged in various religious activities.
SP’s game plan
Siddiqui, a businessman, is soon expected to dissolve the existing SP district units and constitute a fresh organisation in Uttarakhand, where the party has no state executive team since January 2025.
Siddiqui told the Express that since the Assembly elections are round the corner in both Uttarakhand and UP, he will work to boost the party’s prospects in both states. He said he will focus on about 20 seats in Uttarakhand which have significant Muslim population, adding that the party will contest with “full strength” there.
“I will work also in several seats in bordering western UP districts like Bareilly, Rampur, Moradabad, Bijnor, Saharanpur, etc, where Muslims are in large numbers. Our first priority is to ensure the formation of the SP government in UP,” Siddiqui said.
Both the SP and the Congress, which are currently allies in the Opposition INDIA bloc, vie with each other for Muslim votes in these districts of western UP. While the two parties are preparing to forge an alliance to fight the UP elections, no such alignment between them is expected in Uttarakhand, SP sources said.
Muslims make up about 14% of Uttarakhand’s population. The districts with the highest proportion of Muslims in the state are Haridwar (34.28%), Udham Singh Nagar (22.58%), Nainital (12.65%) and Dehradun (11.91%).
In the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly polls, the SP had contested 55 of the state’s 70 seats, failing to open its account. The BJP won 47 seats to return to power, with the Congress winning 19. The BSP won two seats, Manglaur and Laksar in Haridwar, with both its winning candidates being Muslim.
In the 2022 UP elections, the BJP returned to power by winning 255 of the state’s 403 seats as against the SP’s 111. In western UP, which accounts for 74 seats, the SP got 23 and its then ally RLD eight, with the BJP bagging 43 seats.
