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Tag: OP Rajbhar

  • Miffed by SP MLAs’ behaviour in UP Assembly, party ally Rajbhar says it’s against House decorum

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Taking a line contrary to the strategy of the Samajwadi Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief OP Rajbhar, one of the main allies of Akhilesh Yadav, on Monday opposed the behaviour of SP MLAs who resorted to unabated sloganeering and protests inside the House during the joint address of the state Governor on the inaugural day of the first session of the 18th assembly, reconstituted recently.

    The SP MLAs protested in the well of the House during the entire joint address of the Governor Ananadiben Patel. Condemning the behavior of the SP legislators, the SBSP chief said his MLAs did not take part in the protests as he found it against the decorum during the Governor’s address. “This is unbecoming of them (SP MLAs). This culture is not good. My MLAs did not take part in the unruly protests as we do not believe in such practices,” he said.

    The SBSP chief said that the tradition of staging a protest during the Governor’s address should be stopped. “We have stopped it from our side. I have been watching this for the last five years and this is the sixth year and the same behaviour is goingon. I don’t like this. We want to bring about a change in this trend and we have taken the initiative in our own way,” said Rajbhar.

    In fact, Rajbhar’s opposition to the SP MLAs’ behaviour in the house is the second instance in 24 hours where he has flayed his ally. On Sunday evening, the SBSP chief had accused the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav of doing politics by sitting in the comforts of AC.  He had even suggested to the SP chief to shed his comfortable air-conditioned confines and come out to meet people and mingle with them. He added that the SP leaders used to ask him to enlighten Akhilesh Yadav and prompt him to come out in the field. “His (Akhilesh Yadav) leaders want him come out, meet leaders, people and take interest in the organizational work. As they hesitate in telling the SP chief all this, they want me to covey this to him which I did,” said Rajbhar.

    He also charged the SP chief with not giving 100 percent in the recently concluded Assembly elections. “He did not do his best and has still not awakened. I convened four meetings of my party on Sunday. If I can do this, why can’t Akhilesh Yadav,” asserted Rajbhar adding that as he was in alliance with the SP, it was the duty of everyone to toil equally. “We would have been in power today if we had tried well in the 2022 assembly polls as defeat is the reflection of laxity and lack of effort. Have some strength, some substance,” the SBSP chief advised Akhilesh Yadav.

    Akhilesh Yadav has been fighting battles on different fronts. On the one hand, Azam Khan, Abdullah Azam and a number of Muslim leaders along with uncle Shivpal Yadav seem to be disenchanted with his leadership, while on the other, the SBSP chief’s piece of advice has given ammo to his bashers both in and out of the SP to criticise him.

  • AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in process of clinching alliances for UP polls 

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With his ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief OP Rajbhar holding hands with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has been in the process of cobbling up some new alliances with smaller parties ahead of 2022 UP Assembly elections.

    While being determined to contest on 100 seats in UP, Owaisi on Sunday said his party was in talks with “one or two parties” for an alliance for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, However, he remained tight lipped over the names and nature of the parties.

    It may be recalled that Owaisi had joined the Rajbhar led Bhagidari Morcha, an umbrella outfit of around 10 smaller caste-based groups, looking to carve out their presence in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh. 

    However, with Rajbhar clinching an alliance with SP, the Bhagidari Morcha slipped into disarray with many of the smaller political groups unwilling to go along with Rajbhar. Owaisi has been one of them.

    However, while interacting with media persons in Lucknow on Sunday, the AIMIM chief exuded confidence that is party would emerge victorious on the seats it would contest in the next year’s assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

    “Our party has decided to contest elections on 100 seats. We’re in talks with one or two more parties and time will tell if we form an alliance or not. We’re in a position to win the elections,” Owaisi said.

    Owaisi had earlier said his party was in talks with Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav, and suggested he was in talks with the president of Azad Samaj Party Chandra Shekhar Azad.

    “We are in talks with Shivpal Yadav. I’ve also met Chandra Shekhar once. We are in talks with other parties too,” he had said last month.

    Owaisi also asserted that AIMIM’s candidates for the assembly polls won’t be from the Muslim community only, “but from across the communities”.

    The AIMIM, which fielded candidates on 38 seats in 2017 elections in UP, had drawn a blank while the Samajwadi Party bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 and the Congress could manage to win only seven seats.

  • Rajbhar defends Akhilesh’s statements over Jinnah

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Giving a new flavour to the ongoing controversy stirred by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s statement over Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Suheldev Bharat Samaj Party (SBSP) chief OP Rajbhar on Wednesday added fuel to the fire.

    Had Jinnah been made the first Prime Minister of Independent India, the country would not have gone through the vagaries of partition, he said.

    Rajbhar made the assertion in a bid to defend Akhilesh Yadav’s statement. Yadav had equated Jinnah with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, and Jawahar Lal Nehru as freedom fighters of the same ilk, thus giving ammo to the BJP to target him.

    It may be recalled that SP and SBSP have stitched an alliance to oust the ruling BJP in the 2022 assembly polls.

    While making the statement over Jinnah in Varanasi on Wednesday, Rajbhar substantiated his claim by suggesting to go through the writings and statement of BJP stalwart LK Advani over Jinnah. “Read Advani Ji’s views, read Atal Ji’s views, read the views of country’s other well-wishers on the prospect of Jinnah being made the PM. Why did they praise him?”

    Rajbhar was apparently referring to purported statements of Advani over Jinnah in the past after visiting his mausoleum in Karachi in 2005. Advani had to face severe criticism within the party then.

    Akhilesh Yadav had made the remark on Jinnah while heaping lavishing praise on Patel on his 146th birth anniversary on October 31, raising many eyebrows. 

    Addressing a public meeting in Hardoi, the SP leader had said, “Sardar Patel understood the ground and he made decisions accordingly. Hence, he is also known as Iron Man.” 

    “Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle,” he had said. 

    Yadav had also referred to the ban imposed on the RSS by Patel, the then home minister, following the assassination of Gandhi in 1948, saying only he could do it.

    Reacting sharply to Rajbhar’s statement on Jinnah, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said that since SBSP has tied up with the Samajwadi Party, Rajbhar parrots what Akhilesh Yadav teaches him. “Jinnah was considered a villain in the country. He is considered a villain and will always be a villain for us. If the SP and SBSP believe that they would earn a certain number of votes by praising Jinnah at the time of polls, they are hugely mistaken,” said Tripathi.

  • 2022 UP polls: After Rajbhar and Akhilesh seal pact, Owaisi facing tricky situation

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The much talked about alliance between the OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for the electoral battle due early next year may indicate a re-alignment of political forces in Uttar Pradesh, but has put a big question mark on the future of the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha (BSM), a conglomerate of 10 very small regional and caste-based groups.

    Significantly, the alliance also leaves Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM in the lurch. The AIMIM was among the first political outfits to join the BSM showing faith in the leadership of OP Rajbhar.

    In fact, the BSM was formed and nurtured with the idea of carving a base among the most and extremely backward castes (MBCs and EBCs) to establish their identity away from dominant backward castes and ensure their representation in power politics.

    After the alliance with the Samajwadi Party, the political credibility of Rajbhar is again under the scanner as after assembling 10 smaller parties under the BSM umbrella, he changed course suddenly and shook hands with the SP leaving other members of the BSM including the AIMIM to fend for themselves.

    Rajbhar has the image of not being a stable political leader. He was once with the BSP but left to protest Mayawati’s functioning. He floated the SBSP before the 2017 polls and made common cause with the BJP on an ideological plank. The BJP-SBSP partnership enabled Rajbhar to expand his clout in east UP, beyond Varanasi and Gorakhpur in 2017. In 2012, Rajbhar’s party had contested around 50 seats, winning none, but in 2017, he along with the BJP fought nine seats, winning four of them.

    ALSO READ: 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls: Om Prakash Rajbhar’s SBSP seals alliance with Samajwadi Party

    However, the alliance with the BJP fell apart during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Rajbhar accused the Yogi Adityanath government of not implementing the recommendations of the social justice committee set up to review the re-classification of UP’s backward castes to ensure equal benefits of reservationand level playing field to the MBCs and EBCs.

    After the SBSP-SP alliance, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will face the challenge of striking a balance among the dominant Yadavs, MBCs and EBCs as he is believed to have promised Rajbhar that the social justice committee’s recommendations would be implemented. Moreover, the seat-sharing between the two allies would not be an easy task as Akhilesh will have to satisfy two major blocks: the SBSP and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

    On the other hand, for Rajbhar, the going would not be that easy as he would have to bid adieu to Owasi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and other BSM parties. Owaisi has been spinning the wheel of the anti-Samajawadi Party discourse in UP. He is trying to project the SP as a force which has always used Muslims as a vote bank and then forgot about them.

    “In fact, Owaisi has been looking to make the kind of breakthrough he achieved in the Bihar Assembly polls where his party won five seats for the first time. Owaisi had hoped to capitalise on the minority “discomfort” with the SP as Muslims believe that Akhilesh has failed to come out in favour of jailed Azam Khan forcefully,” says Prof AK Mishra, a prominent political scientist. He adds that Owaisi has been looking at the UP elections as an opportunity to widen the AIMIM’s footprint in UP.

    In Uttar Pradesh, it was almost always the SP barring 2007 when Muslims voted for the BSP and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, when they rooted for the Congress. In the 2017 Assembly election, the AIMIM on its own fought on 38 seats, won nothing and secured a vote share of 0.24 per cent.

    It is a Catch 22 situation for Owaisi as he will have to swallow his pride and co-exist with the SBSP-SP coalition or fight solo and be back at square one. Immediately after stitching an alliance with the SP, the SBSP has started denying Owaisi’s presence in the BSM saying that his party was not a part of it. “He broke our trust the day his party’s UP chief Shaukat Ali announced that the AIMIM will contest 100 seats,” said SBSP national spokesman Piyush Mishra.

    As per highly placed sources, the AIMIM’s Owaisi and Jan Adhikar Party chief Babu Singh Kushwaha may part ways with the BSM after the SBSP-SP alliance. On the other hand, even Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar, in talks with the BSM, has not said anything about his joining the Morcha categorically.

    Even an alliance with the SP does not suit the politics of the Bhim Army which claims to be the voice mainly of Scheduled Castes which have been allegedly tormented by the dominant Yadavs.

  • 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls: Om Prakash Rajbhar’s SBSP seals alliance with Samajwadi Party

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The realignment of political forces in Uttar Pradesh is taking place at a fast pace now as former minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday sealed a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

    Rajbhar, along with Chief General Secretary of SBSP Arvind Rajbhar, met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and said that now the SBSP and Samajwadi Party will go together to ensure the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

    Taking to Twitter after meeting Akhilesh Yadav, Rajbhar posted: “This time, the BJP will be wiped out. Samajwadi Party and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party have come together. The days of the BJP government, which betrayed all sections along with Dalits, backward minorities, are numbered. Had a courtesy meeting with former CM and SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav today.”

    The SBSP chief had recently said that anything was possible in politics and had given hints of rejoining the NDA. He had also kept a list of conditions for the BJP. Rajbhar had also met UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh at his residence some time back fuelling speculation of an alliance with the BJP once again.

    However, interacting with mediapersons later, SBSP national spokesperson Piyush Mishra said the decision on the alliance was final but seat-sharing would be finalised later. He claimed that more and more parties of the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, which Rajbhar was heading, would also be adjusted in the alliance.

    ALSO READ: SBSP chief Rajbhar hints at return to old alliance with BJP ahead of 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls

    Rajbhar has been spearheading a campaign to take smaller regional and caste-based parties along. He had named a conglomerate of 10 smaller parties as Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha. However, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM is also a part of the Bhagidari Morcha.

    On the question of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi being part of the Morcha or not, Mishra said that if required, the SBSP would part ways with AIMIM as things were not yet final regarding the AIMIM coming along with them in the Morcha. It may be recalled that Owaisi has been a strong critic of the Samajwadi Party claiming that it had used Muslims only as a vote bank and had not done anything concrete for their uplift all this while.

    The Rajbhar-led Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha had announced a big rally in Mau on October 27, and it is now expected that Rajbhar may share the stage with Akhilesh, who already has a programme scheduled in neighboring Ghazipur district the same day.

    About seat sharing, Rajbhar said even if the Samajwadi Party did not leave a single seat for the SBSP, he would still contest the 2022 polls in alliance with Akhilesh Yadav.

    Meanwhile, in an official statement, the Samajwadi Party also confirmed joining hands with the SBSP for the 2022 polls. “The Samajwadi government under the leadership of National President Shri Akhilesh Yadav has done countless works for the poor, downtrodden and backward classes, including the underprivileged, exploited, farmers, youth, women, businessmen. Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, which has raised the voice for the rights of the weak, along with the Samajwadi Party, is ready to take UP on the path of development. This is the beginning of the end of the oppressive rule of the BJP,” the party stated. “There are 18-22% Rajbhar voters in Purvanchal with SBSP. The party has influence in more than 150 seats of Purvanchal. There is deep penetration in the assembly seats of Varanasi division, Devipatan division, Gorakhpur division, Azamgarh division of the state. SBSP also has a strong hold on sub-castes like Bansi, Aarkh, Arkvanshi, Kharwar, Kashyap, Pal, Prajapati, Bind, Banjara, Bari, Biar, Vishwakarma, Nai and Paswan,” it added.