UP: OP Rajbhar's party returns to NDA fold to fight 2024 elections with BJP
Om Prakash Rajbhar, a former ally of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, has returned to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The re-entry of OP Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in the NDA was tweeted by Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday (July 15)
In his tweet, Shah revealed that he had net OP Rajbhar in Delhi, who decided to join the NDA alliance. Welcoming him into the NDA family, Shah tweeted that the “arrival of Rajbhar ji will strengthen the NDA in Uttar Pradesh”. And also the efforts being made by the NDA under the leadership of Modi for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden will get further strength, he added.
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Meanwhile, Rajbhar also tweeted that BJP and SBSP have come together. “Together, the two will fight for social justice, the country’s security and protection, good governance, and to strengthen the deprived, backward, Dalits, women, farmers, youth, and every marginalised section,” he said.
Further, he told ANI that the SBSP had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 14 in Delhi and discussed various issues and decided to fight the 2024 elections together. “A big power will be formed with the coming together of our parties, he added.
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There was a lot of speculation about Rajbhar’s next political move, after he had met deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak on Tuesday (July 11) at his residence in Lucknow. But at that time, Rajbhar and his party’s general secretary Arun dismissed the meeting as a “personal” one.
However, there has been indications of Rajbhar’s inclination to join the BJP. He was seen with the deputy chief minister Pathak a couple of times. Moreover, UP transport minister Daya Shankar Singh too had been actively trying to seal a pact between the BJP and the SBSP.
Earlier, in May, it was revealed that the Nishad Party will contest the Lok Sabha elections as an ally of the BJP but they will fight under their own symbol. Similarly, news reports suggested that the BJP is interested in a ‘Nishad party type arrangement’ with Rajbhar. According to reports, the BJP will offer a Lok Sabha ticket from Ghazipur to Rajbhar’s son and make Om Prakash a cabinet minister in Yogi 2.0.
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Back to the NDA camp
The SBSP had earlier fought the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections allying itself with the BJP. Rajbhar was then appointed minister for backward classes welfare in the first Yogi Adityanath cabinet. However, he resigned soon after he staged a sit-in protest in Ghazipur demanding the removal of then district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri.
However, even as the BJP seems willing to give the SBSP a single seat, the latter was trying to bargain to get about three to four Lok Sabha seats.
SBSP had fought the 2022 UP Assembly elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party but (SP), but the relationship soured later over his support of NDA nominee candidate Draupadi Murmu at that time. SP then accused Rajbhar of having a ‘nexus’ with the BJP and claimed that the MLA from Zahoorabad Constituency, Ghazipur,UP was working to strengthen the saffron party.
Earlier this year, UP BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary described Rajbhar as an old friend. “No one is untouchable for the BJP. Whoever agrees with the views of the BJP, the party is ready to take him with it. The BJP is a big ocean. Rajbhar is our old friend,” he had said.
