Lucknow: Days after returning to the NDA fold, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar sought to blame his former ally and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for convicted former legislator Mukhtar Ansari’s son also making it to the BJP-led coalition.
While Mukhtar Ansari is serving a life term and a 10-year sentence in murder and abduction-murder cases respectively, his son, Abbas, is also in jail in a money laundering case.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, Rajbhar, who had had walked out of the alliance with SP last year and returned to the NDA earlier this week, sought to distance himself from Mau MLA Abbas Ansari and said the legislator was actually an SP candidate.
“Abbas was an SP candidate who fought on our symbol because Akhilesh ji said so. One hour before the nomination was set to close, he was made to fill the nomination paper. We gave him membership but he used to move around with an SP symbol and flag on his car till we urged him to remove those,” he claimed.
The SBSP, which wields significant influence in eastern UP, returned to the BJP-led NDA Sunday — five years after Rajbhar parted ways following differences over fighting on his own symbol ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party joined hands with the SP in 2021 for UP assembly elections the next year. While the BJP then won 255 seats in the 403-seat assembly, the SP emerged as the main opposition with 111 seats. The SBSP increased its tally of assembly seats to six from four in the 2017 elections.
Rajbhar said the SBSP will soon have representation in Lok Sabha and will seek three percent seats in the coalition to ensure that the party gets recognised by the EC.
The SBSP chief also sought to play down UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s reported uneasiness with his return to the alliance, claiming it was Yogi who played the biggest role in the move. He said he met the UP CM a day before his 13 July meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Before I went to meet Amit Shah, Arvind (son) and I met the CM on 12 July. He asked if the alliance talks had moved forward and said he too wanted my return. When Amit Shah came to Lucknow on 2 July, the CM told him they couldn’t win certain seats in Purvanchal without my help. The CM asked him to speak to me soon. I got a call from Shah on 13 July,” he said.
On media reports about his return to the state cabinet, he said the same will be finalised in Delhi after a week. “Like there was truth in speculation about my return to the NDA, there is some truth there but as of now, nothing’s final. I will meet the CM and after eight days, I have been called for discussions on that front. Then we will go to Delhi…that too will be fulfilled.”
Also read: ‘Hindus & Muslims shouldn’t be able to buy each other’s houses,’ says Kanpur’s BJP mayor
‘Want to get my party recognised before my death’
Asked about the impending bypolls to the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat — vacated since the conviction of BSP leader Afzal Ansari — and the Ghosi assembly seat vacated by ex-SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan who joined the BJP last week, Rajbhar said, “My fight is not for seats… It is my desire to get my party recognised before my death for which I need 3 per cent seats, that’s all…But it is for sure that soon, the SBSP will have its representation in the Lok Sabha.”
He said joining the NDA will help send an SBSP MP to Delhi and also ensure that their proposal to include the Bhar-Rajbhar caste in the list of SC/ST is moved by the state government.
“The high court has directed the state government to take a decision within two months on including the Bhar-Rajbhar communities in the list of SC/STs. Orders have been passed in that case for the past one and a half years. We have discussed the same with the CM, union home minister and will raise the same with the PM too. If this proposal goes to Delhi and gets passed, they will be assimilated in the mainstream,” he said.
There have been multiple court orders in that case and in September last year too, the court had given four weeks’ time to the government for compliance with one of its orders. On 16 July, the Allahabad High Court gave the state government two months’ time to respond to the central government’s proposal to include the communities in the SC/ST list.
Also read: ‘UP ke sher’ — social media accounts of men who shot at Aazad all about guns, gangsters & glory
‘Can help NDA gain in LS polls’
The SBSP chief added that he would help the NDA gain votes in 32 Lok Sabha seats and many more opposition leaders will follow after SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan who joined the BJP recently.
While refusing to give a specific number of people who may switch sides, he said, “Many people are in touch with me. I had told you (media) that people will come (to the BJP) and you should be patient. Akhilesh ji’s party people were challenging me to convince even one of their men but see, Dara Chauhan has come. What will they say now? Those things are happening. Many have realised that the SP has no future.”
Asked about the SP’s tweet of a video from the past where he said he won’t join hands with the BJP even if God asked him to, Rajbhar claimed that even Shivpal Yadav used to say the same.
चरित्र~बयान~स्वार्थ~दोहरा चरित्र👇 pic.twitter.com/Bhzkj017JM
— SamajwadiPartyMediaCell (@MediaCellSP) July 16, 2023
“Shivpal used to say he would never return to the SP again. Modi ji gave Ayushmaan cards to people and not the Congress, the SP or the BSP. People in dehat (rural areas) tell me Modi ji was giving them 5 kg ration and Rs 5,000 in bank account and ask what others had given them. People say Modi ji is working fine for them,” he said.
Soon after Rajbhar’s return to the NDA fold, Shivpal attacked Rajbhar by saying that his move had shown he did not stand for his own community anymore.
बाजा बजाते-बजाते खुद ही बैंड बन गए। अब तो इनका समाज भी इनकी असलियत समझ चुका है कि ये असल में किसी के नहीं हैं। अब तो ये महोदय अपने समाज के ठेकेदार भी नहीं रहे। pic.twitter.com/1XuNGrxQ7n
— Shivpal Singh Yadav (@shivpalsinghyad) July 17, 2023
Speaking about his party’s short alliance with the SP, Rajbhar said Akhilesh started a controversy even before the Vidhan Sabha elections.
“He kept dilly-dallying on seat-share for eight months. Finally, when he asked us what we wanted, I told him we needed 3 per cent seats to become a recognised party. Then, he said SP candidates will fight on the SBSP symbol. After much coaxing, I left in anger so they tried mollifying me. After that, I made a statement that even if Akhilesh ji doesn’t give a single seat, I will remain with him,” he said, adding that his party candidates from communities such as Pal, Bind, Prajapati, Kashyap, Banjara, Baheliya, Arkvanshi, and Bayar, were not given tickets.
Rajbhar added that he decided to return to the NDA the day Akhilesh sent him a letter last year, asking him to go wherever he wanted.
“I kept it confidential till it was final…you saw that Union Home Minister Amit Shahji tweeted that they held talks with me. Since I wield influence in UP, my return to the NDA will strengthen it and we will fight the 2024 (Lok Sabha) elections together to strengthen the PM’s policies for development of the poor.”
Vote for Murmu
On why his party backed the BJP’s presidential candidate, Droupadi Murmu, Rajbhar alleged that he was not called to a meeting between SP ally and Rashtriya Lok Dal Party MP Jayant Chaudhary and opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha ahead of the poll last year and the subsequent press conference.
“When I asked Akhilesh ji after the press conference, he said I was free to go where I wanted to. These were his words…I received a letter saying that I was free to go wherever I wanted. So, we accepted the divorce.”
“When the BJP got to know about our differences, the UP CM called me and asked me to meet him. He told me that since I fight for Dalit-backwards and the BJP had made an adivasi the presidential candidate (Droupadi Murmu), I should vote for the NDA candidate. I thought the SP was not even asking me so why not vote for the NDA candidate. The CM invited me to the dinner for Murmu. This news reached Delhi and Amit Shah called me and asked me to meet him. I went to Delhi the next day and he too told me the same thing (vote for Murmu),” he said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)