SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Lucknow: Newly inducted Uttar Pradesh minister and president of BJP's alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in the state, Om Prakash Rajbhar stirred up a controversy as he likened himself to the famous villain Gabbar Singh of 1975 Sholay fame and asked his party workers not to be afraid of the cops.
Addressing his party workers in the state's Mau district in the state, Rajbhar said that his authority was only next to the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
He asked his supporters to go to the police stations wearing ''yellow towels'' (his party flag) so that the cops know that they were SBSP workers and leaders. ''The police inspector will see me in you if you wear a yellow towel....just tell the cop that I have sent you,'' Rajbhar told the gathering.
"There was a Gabbar Singh in Sholay, consider me also as Gabbar," he added.
The president of the SBSP, a predominantly Rajbhar (OBC) party, wields considerable influence over the community voters, who were in sizeable strength in around a dozen districts in the eastern region of the state. Rajbhar also said that his party has demanded three Lok Sabha seats from the BJP in the forthcoming LS elections. ''We will contest from the Ghosi seat....I have also demanded Ghazipur and Ballia,'' he added.
BJP sources said that the saffron party would leave 6 Lok Sabha seats in UP for its alliance partners.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal could get two seats-Baghpat and Bijnore, while the Apna Dal (AD) could also get two seats. The Nishad Party and the SBSP were likely to be offered one seat each, sources added.