Lucknow: NDA constituent Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) will contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections independently, with its chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, expressing dismay at not being allocated even a single seat in the neighbouring state as part of the BJP-led alliance.
Declaring the SBSP is prepared to field candidates on 153 seats, Rajbhar said he had no option after talks with the BJP failed.
The National Democratic Alliance Sunday announced its seat-sharing formula for 243-member Bihar assembly. While the BJP and the JD(U) would contest 101 seats each, Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas) would contest 29. Two other NDA allies—the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM)—will contest six each.
Bihar is voting in two phases on 6 and 11 November, with the results on 14 November.
ThePrint has learnt that the SBSP is likely to announce the first list of 53 candidates Thursday. The party is also in talks with Tej Pratap Yadav’s newly launched outfit, the Janshakti Janata Dal, for a possible alliance.
Although the Janshakti Janata Dal released a list of 21 candidates on Monday, both parties may make some adjustments to their lists if the talks progress positively, OP Rajbhar’s son and SBSP’s spokesperson Arun Rajbhar told ThePrint.
Arun further said the SBSP is still open to alliance talks with other smaller parties but made it clear that there will be no tie-up with the BJP in Bihar. He blamed the BJP’s leadership in Bihar for the situation, claiming that while the party’s central leadership was interested in an alliance, the Bihar unit rejected the proposal.
In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the SBSP contested five seats as part of the Grand Democratic Secular Front, which included Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP, AIMIM, and the BSP. While AIMIM won five seats and the BSP secured one, the SBSP failed to open its account.
The party had quit the NDA ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and joined the Samajwadi Party-led alliance in 2021. However, after the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, the SBSP once again returned to the NDA fold.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak had coordinated the discussions between the SBSP and BJP before the SBSP’s return.
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‘Friends only in their needs’
Rajbhar, who is the panchayati raj and minority welfare minister in the Aditynath government, met Pathak Sunday but he was unable to bridge the differences this time.
Addressing media on Monday, Rajbhar claimed that the Prajapati, Rajbhar, and Rajbanshi communities in Bihar have between 20,000 and 80,000 votes in every district, yet major parties like the BJP, JD(U), RJD, and LJP treat them as their own vote base. He said the SBSP now aims to form a new front.
“When they needed us during by-elections, they approached us with folded hands. Now, their tone has changed,” Rajbhar said. “We even met BJP leaders JP Nadda, Vinod Tawde, and Home Minister Amit Shah to present our plan. If the BJP still wants us in the NDA fold (in Bihar), they can offer us 4-5 seats.”
He confirmed the SBSP will move ahead with preparations to contest 153 constituencies, while also holding talks with leaders like Premchand Prajapati to explore potential alliances.
“We want to uphold the spirit of alliance dharma,” he said, “but if the NDA does not accommodate us, we will go alone. There’s still time for them to rethink and offer us 4-5 seats.”
Meanwhile, his son Arun Rajbhar said the party had initially prepared to contest the Bihar elections as part of the NDA, taking cues from its partnership model in Uttar Pradesh. He said his party maintained regular communication with key BJP leaders but later learned that the Bihar BJP unit had not submitted a favourable report to the central leadership about the alliance.
“Receiving no positive response from the NDA, we informed Brajesh Pathak the BJP-SBSP coordinator in Uttar Pradesh, about the party’s decision to contest independently, and also notified other senior BJP leaders,” he said.
“Rajbhars’ votes are around 3.5 percent in Bihar. The BJP may regret later for not entering into an alliance with us there. We have our district units in every district in Bihar. We conducted 63 public meetings there last year. Our strength lies in our organisation,” he added.
Uneasy alliance with BJP
Rajbhar’s relationship with the BJP has seen frequent ups and downs. Recently, he praised BSP supremo Mayawati in an interview, saying, “Mayawati was an efficient ruler. Even today, people ask me about her tenure, and I tell them that during her rule, officials were so disciplined that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa.”
Rajbhar’s political alignments tend to shift with every election. He allied with the BJP during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls but later joined hands with the Samajwadi Party for the 2022 Assembly elections, accusing the BJP of neglecting OBCs.
During the 2022 UP poll campaign, he even took jibes at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, saying he would have “nothing to do” post elections. However, the SBSP returned to the NDA soon after the elections. Party insiders suggest his statements often reflect his political calculations.
The 63-year-old Rajbhar began his political career with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the early 1990s. In 2002, he floated his own outfit, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
He first aligned with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, though he wasn’t allotted any seat. In 2017, Rajbhar entered the Assembly poll fray for the first time, winning from Zahoorabad in Ballia. The SBSP, then allied with the BJP, won four of the eight seats it contested, earning Rajbhar a berth as social welfare minister in the Yogi government.
The Rajbhar community, traditionally labourers and influenced by the Arya Samaj movement, falls under the OBC category in Uttar Pradesh and is concentrated mainly in the eastern part of the state and also in some border districts of neighbouring Bihar.
Although the BJP’s top leadership has maintained silence on Rajbhar’s latest move, state-level functionaries have been instructed to closely monitor his activities in the run-up to the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson Avaneesh Tyagi said, “In politics, everyone has the right to contest elections. He (Rajbhar) is our ally, but we can’t stop him from contesting. Our alliance in Uttar Pradesh will continue, and as far as matters related to Bihar are concerned, the high command will take the final decision.”
The SBSP’s decision to go solo in Bihar also draws a parallel with the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which had charted a similar course in 2022. Despite being an NDA ally and securing 11 seats to contest in the 2020 Bihar elections, the VIP had fielded its own candidates on nine seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The party managed to win four seats, but internal rifts soon surfaced.
Within a year, three MLAs switched to the BJP, while one MLA died. The souring relationship eventually led party chief Mukesh Sahani to exit the NDA and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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