Lucknow: Om Prakash Rajbhar, chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and former minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, hinted at renewing the party’s alliance with the BJP Friday, but with certain conditions.
At a press conference, Rajbhar listed several conditions, including waiver of electricity bills and prohibition of liquor, which will induce him to form an alliance with the BJP for the upcoming 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
”They should accept the social justice committee report first. If they are ready to make education free till post-graduation, waiver of domestic electricity bill, prohibition of liquor, border limit of police, weekly leave to police force, give home guards the same facilities as police, then we will form an alliance with them,” he said.
”Even Mohan Bhagwat ji has been raising the issue of liquor prohibition but governments don’t listen to him. I had gone to BJP with these demands. This is about the interests of people and not my personal matters. The Social Justice Committee report which has been ready for two years and 10 months has been gathering dust. That’s why I resigned as Minister in protest (in 2019),” he added.
Rajbhar was referring to the report submitted by a social justice committee formed by the Uttar Pradesh government in 2019 for reservation distribution among the state’s most backward communities under retired High Court Justice Raghvendra Singh.
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Last Rajbhar-BJP alliance
Rajbhar’s SBSP had contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls with the BJP and he was appointed as a Cabinet minister. However, he was expelled in 2019 after months of acrimony between the two parties.
After his expulsion, Rajbhar formed the ‘Bhagidaar Sankalp Morcha’, a coalition of regional parties which includes Asaduddin Owaisi’s party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) and the Azad Samaj Party led by Chandra Shekhar Aazad.
“Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha was formed on the basis of various issues in the society. Whichever party accepts those issues, we will go with them. A final declaration on the matter will be made on October 27 in the scheduled rally to be held in the Mau district,” said Rajbhar at the press meet.
Meanwhile, Owaisi had announced in June that his party will contest 100 seats in the upcoming UP polls in alliance with the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha.
However, Rajbhar had said that the seat sharing formula among members of the Morcha had not been decided yet.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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