Spurned by SP, BSP, Om Prakash Rajbhar eyes BJP return

SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar waves at supporters during a rally to mark the 16th foundation day of the party in Lucknow, Oct 27, 2018. Credit: PTI File Photo

After being shown the door by the Samajwadi Party and rebuffed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is planning a return to the BJP fold for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The SBSP had contested the 2017 polls in alliance with BJP, but the relations between the two parties grew strained in 2019 and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was dismissed from the ministry by Yogi Adityanath.

The recent Presidential elections seem to have brought the two former allies closer and Rajbhar voted for the NDA candidate in the polls.

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According to sources, the BJP is keen to further strengthen its reach among OBCs for the Lok Sabha elections.

Accounting for over 40 per cent of the electorate in Uttar Pradesh, the OBC community has been a key constituent of the social coalition for all political parties.

While Rajbhar is now seeking a return to the BJP fold, he is also eyeing a seat in the Vidhan Parishad for his son Arvind Rajbhar who had lost the recent assembly elections from Shivpur assembly seat in Varanasi.

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Rajbhar's supporters claim that another BJP ally, Sanjay Nishad, has been given a seat in the Vidhan Parishad, a ministerial position while his elder son is an MP and younger one is an MLA.

Going by the same formula, the SBSP also deserves a better deal.

Two seats are coming up for elections in the Vidhan Parishad and Rajbhar is waiting to get his share before he announces his loyalty to BJP again.

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OBC Morcha chief Narendra Kashyap said that the backward classes know what the BJP has done for them. "We have constituted an OBC commission and given space to more than two dozen ministers from the OBC background in the Narendra Modi cabinet," he said.

Significantly, the BJP is also keeping an eye on two other OBC outfits -- Mahan Dal and Janwadi Party -- that have snapped ties with the SP.

It is noteworthy that in the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP could win only three OBC dominated seats out of the total 33 seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh and this mainly because the SP had formed a rainbow coalition of various OBC caste groups.