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Journalism of Courage
IT WAS A wedding made in pre-poll heaven for Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar. As his son Arun, the SBSP general secretary, tied the knot in Varanasi, senior leaders of both the state’s ruling BJP and the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) turned up to mark their attendance — as prospective suitors for a party whose affiliations are up in the air.
The day-long ceremony, held in Rajbhar’s ancestral village in Varanasi on Tuesday, saw state BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, as well as Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, ministers Swatantra Dev Singh and Girish Yadav (both OBCs) and BJP Ballia MP Virendra Singh Mast, along with other BJP leaders from the Kashi region. Also present was retired IAS officer and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s advisor Awanish Kumar Awasthi, who came bearing a written message from the CM wishing the Rajbhar family. Last week, Om Prakash had received a similar letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Representing the SP were senior leader Ram Govind Chaudhary, MLAs Virendra Kumar Yadav, Dara Singh Chauhan and Om Prakash Singh, who is also the SP national secretary, while RLD president Jayant Chaudhary himself dropped by with other party leaders. Jayant’s long conversation with Om Prakash did not go unnoticed either.
The SBSP contested the 2022 Assembly elections in alliance with the SP and RLD, winning six seats, including Om Prakash’s constituency Zahoorabad. However, soon after, the alliance had begun to show signs of strain, with Om Prakash criticising SP president Akhilesh Yadav. SBSP MLAs had cross-voted in support of the NDA’s presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu in 2022. Eventually, the SBSP walked out of the alliance, though leaders of the SP and the RLD claimed their tie-up continues to hold.
As of now, it is the BJP that is at the front of the queue. In 2017, the SBSP had contested the Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP, and Om Prakash was even inducted in the Cabinet by Yogi Adityanath. He quit before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections over differences on “OBC issues”.
The SBSP’s political fortunes are also seen on the upswing due to the BJP exploring fresh tie-ups ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections across states. BJP leaders see the SBSP helping it in at least 12 Lok Sabha seats in eastern UP. The SBSP’s own claims are of influence in at least 32 Lok Sabha seats.
After the wedding ceremony, an SBSP leader said, “Om Prakash Rajbhar has emerged as a tall OBC leader who can’t be ignored in UP politics. Earlier, there were rumours that BJP leaders won’t turn up at the wedding reception. But over the last two days, there was a rush among leaders of all political parties, including the BJP, to ensure their presence at the reception.”
He added, “The decision on a tie-up will be taken at an appropriate time before the polls.”
In UP, the BJP at present has an alliance with the Apna Dal (S) and the NISHAD Party. A senior BJP leader told The Indian Express, “The SBSP has a strong voter base among OBCs and Dalits of eastern UP. The BJP has prominent OBC faces, but an alliance with the SBSP can help us win many seats in eastern UP, including ones like Ghazipur and Ghosi that we had lost in 2019.”
In recent months, the SBSP has dropped enough hints that it is open to a tie-up. Sources said that in last month’s elections for two MLC seats in UP, SBSP MLAs had voted for both BJP nominees, helping them win.
While their vote for BJP’s OBC candidate is understandable, the same cannot be said of their vote for the other BJP candidate — a Thakur (upper caste), especially when the SP had a Dalit and an OBC (Rajbhar) candidate in the fray — unless one takes into account the SBSP’s keenness for an alliance.
