Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the Uniform Civil Code will be introduced in all 21 states ruled by the BJP led NDA before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking in Mumbai on 13 September, he expressed confidence that the remaining NDA governed states would follow the path already taken by a few. The statement has shifted attention to Uttar Pradesh the most populous state and the one with the largest Muslim population in absolute numbers where assembly elections are due in early 2027.
Uttar Pradesh however has not yet begun formal work on a draft. The State Law Commission chaired by retired High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava has received no official request communication or mandate from the state government to prepare a UCC bill. Commission sources confirmed that the last legislative drafting exercise completed by the body was the Uttar Pradesh Societies Registration Bill 2024, which was enacted in March 2025. Officials indicated that any future draft would require extensive public consultations and a detailed study of the Uttarakhand model adapted to Uttar Pradesh’s size and social complexity.
Uttarakhand remains the only state where a comprehensive UCC is already in force. The law was enacted in February 2024 and implemented from January 2025. It covers marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession, and mandatory registration of live in relationships. Gujarat, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh have passed their own UCC bills which currently await presidential assent and notification. Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh have constituted expert committees to prepare drafts. West Bengal has also formed a panel, and has become an NDA ruled state recently.
In Uttar Pradesh, senior BJP leaders view the UCC as an ideological counter to the opposition’s emphasis on caste census and social justice platforms. After the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and the abrogation of Article 370, the Uniform Civil Code is described within the party as the remaining core commitment of its long standing agenda. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has not set a public timeline. State party functionaries say the administration will move after the national directive from the Home Minister.
Opposition parties have dismissed the renewed push. Saharanpur MP Imran Masood of the Congress called the announcement “pure vote bank politics” and argued that top down uniformity cannot override regional and community traditions. Samajwadi Party MP Awadhesh Prasad from Faizabad said that the UCC would not decide the 2027 election and that rural unemployment, inflation, paper leaks, poverty, and healthcare would remain the dominant concerns of voters.
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The gap between the central deadline and the absence of any drafting process In Lucknow is now the central fact. Shah has fixed 2029 as the outer limit for all NDA states. Uttar Pradesh with its demographic weight and approaching assembly polls has not yet asked its own Law Commission to begin work. The difference between a national political announcement and the administrative silence in the state capital will shape how the issue develops in the months ahead. Any eventual draft will have to navigate legal social and practical questions that are far larger in scale than those faced by Uttarakhand. Until the state government issues a formal request, the Uniform Civil Code in Uttar Pradesh remains a stated intention rather than an active legislative project.
