A day after giving cryptic replies on the Samajwadi Party (SP) not naming anyone from his party for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council polls, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Om Prakash Rajbhar on Thursday joined the Lok Sabha by-election campaign in Azamgarh where SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav is tasked with defending the party citadel.
The Lok Sabha bypolls will be held in Azamgarh, along with another SP bastion Rampur, on June 23.
These bypolls were caused after both SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and veteran leader Azam Khan resigned as Lok Sabha MPs of Azamgarh and Rampur after they were elected to the U.P. assembly from Karhal and Rampur, respectively.
Political experts read the SBSP joining the SP campaign as proof that the chief opposition party had managed to placate its disgruntled allies somewhat.
Rajbhar’s party had won six seats in the 2022 U.P. assembly polls that it contested in alliance with the SP.
On Wednesday, soon after the SP’s nomination, its pre-poll partner Mahan Dal chief Keshav Dev Maurya had announced that his party was severing its ties with the Samajwadi Party. Another ally Janwadi Party (socialist) leader Sanjay Chauhan had said that he would revisit his party’s association with the SP.
Various SBSP leaders, including national spokesman Piyush Mishra and state chief Sunil Arkvanshi, had openly criticised the SP leadership.
{{/usCountry}}Various SBSP leaders, including national spokesman Piyush Mishra and state chief Sunil Arkvanshi, had openly criticised the SP leadership.
{{/usCountry}}On Thursday, Dharmendra Yadav was quick in responding to Rajbhar’s decision to campaign for him.
“Received love and blessings from Om Prakash Rajbharji. Hail Suheldev, hail Samajwad,” he tweeted.
OP Rajbhar also retweeted a message from his party’s twitter handle that said that Dharmendra Yadav was the joint SP-SBSP candidate in Azamgarh.
“The party chief campaigned for the joint SP-SBSP candidate Dharmendra Yadav and appealed to the cadres to work unitedly to secure the candidate’s win,” the SBSP tweet read.
Azamgarh has a sizeable OBC population and Rajbhars, too, have a presence there.
Despite the Modi wave since 2014, the SP has been keeping the BJP out of Azamgarh. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav won from there. In 2019, SP chief Akhilesh bettered his father’s record to defeat BJP candidate and Bhojpuri singer Dinesh Yadav aka Nirahua.
In the 2022 U.P. assembly polls, the SP won all the 10 assembly seats from Azamgarh.
The BSP has fielded Guddu Jamali, a two-time former lawmaker from Mubarakpur assembly seat of Azamgarh, while the BJP has again named Nirahua for these bypolls.
In Rampur, veteran Azam Khan’s pick Asim Raza has been fielded by the party as its candidate in these by-polls. The BJP has fielded former Azam aide Ghanshyam Lodhi, a two-term former MLC, on the seat.
“The BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) decision to skip Rampur and the Congress decision to sit out of these bypolls altogether means a bipolar SP vs BJP in Rampur and a triangular SP-BJP-BSP contest in Azamgarh. It also means that after the 2022 U.P. polls chief minister Yogi Adityanath, leader of the opposition and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati are again set for a mini bout in the bypoll in Azamgarh,” said professor Manuka Khanna of the political science department of Lucknow University.
BJP DECLARES LIST OF STAR CAMPAIGNERS
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared its list of 40 star campaigners who include defence minister and Lucknow Lok Sabha MP Rajnath Singh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya, Brajesh Pathak and others for the Lok Sabha bypolls.
The BJP’s list of star campaigners includes two Rajbhar leaders Sakaldeep Rajbhar and Hari Narayan Rajbhar.
Among the BJP’s list of star campaigners is union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who hails from Rampur.