Lucknow: Three years after he quit the NDA, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief O.P. Rajbhar seems to be warming up to the BJP. He announced Friday that his party would vote for Droupadi Murmu, candidate of the BJP-led NDA, in the presidential polls next week. The announcement comes amid tense ties between the SP and the SBSP.
Rajbhar, whose SBSP is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, told ThePrint that it was up to the SP to decide when to end the alliance. “Let them decide when to end the alliance. If they say I should go with the BJP, I will go,” he said.
Rajbhar has been making statements against the SP and its chief Akhilesh Yadav ever since the alliance, which includes the RLD, fared poorly in the UP assembly polls held in March this year.
According to the SBSP chief, all six of his party MLAs would support Murmu. But the SP has maintained that its MLAs would vote for opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Sinha had last week held a meeting with the MLAs of SP and RLD in Lucknow seeking support for his candidature. Rajbhar, who was allegedly not invited, later claimed he was not being respected by the SP.
The SP, meanwhile, has expressed displeasure over Rajbhar’s decision to support Murmu.
Speaking to ThePrint, SP spokesperson Manoj Singh Kaka said: “He is saying that he is in alliance and also saying they will vote for the presidential candidate of the NDA. What can be said for such people with dual character?”
“We have enough leaders from backward and deprived communities. If he wants to say all this, then SP does not need such people. We only need people who can fight for the rights of Dalits and the backward castes and not those who can sell off the idea of justice for the communities,” he added.
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‘Yogi, Murmu sought my party’s support’
According to Rajbhar, at a dinner held by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for Murmu last week where he was in attendance, both sought his party’s support in the presidential polls.
He also told the media that, apart from Adityanath and Murmu, it was Union Home Minister Amit Shah who called him up and asked if there was any problem (in voting for Murmu).
“Murmu ji said that she comes from the lowest rung of society and because I fight the battle for the weak, I should support her. The same appeal was also made by the UP CM. I told them that I had come alone among them and had not spoken to my MLAs and at the party forum. I informed (them) that our decision would be shared with the media on 12 July but Mulayam Singh ji’s wife expired and we had to postpone it,” he said.
“(Later) Amit Shah gave me a call and asked me about the announcement. I told him the presser was postponed. He asked me if there was a problem. I told him there was none and went to Delhi, where I met him. He repeated what was said by Adityanath and Murmu ji,” Rajbhar added.
When asked if he was waiting for the SP to call off the alliance with his party, Rajbhar said nobody could throw him out of the alliance.
“Am I the owner of my party or someone else? How will we work (on their agenda)? I have never worked on someone else’s agenda. I am on my agenda,” he said, when asked why he was not working on the alliance partners’ agenda. Rajbhar also said he was not working against the SP.
Rajbhar’s announcement of support to Murmu has led to questions about SBSP’s Mau MLA Abbas Ansari’s vote.
Abbas’ father Mukhtar Ansari, former Mau MLA and a gangster-turned-politician, has been behind bars over cases lodged against him, and his property worth around Rs 200 crore across UP has been sealed or demolished under the BJP government.
ThePrint tried to contact Abbas via phone calls and messages but has not got a reply so far. However, a source close to him said that Abbas was most likely to go with the SBSP’s choice if a whip is issued because he could not defy the party.
Asked about this, Rajbhar told ThePrint that he would issue a whip to party MLAs on voting for Murmu.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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