The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a former BJP ally-turned-rival, have become allies for the 2022 UP assembly polls.
Both the Samajwadi Party and the SBSP announced the alliance on Wednesday. Before the announcement, SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar, a former minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav met at the Samajwadi Party state headquarters in Lucknow. SBSP chief general secretary Arvind Rajbhar was also present at the meeting that finalised the alliance for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Om Prakash Rajbhar, in a tweet in Hindi, said: “The BJP will be wiped out this time. The Samajwadi Party and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party have come together. The days of the BJP government, which betrayed all sections along with Dalits, backward, and minorities, are numbered.”
Om Prakash Rajbhar and Akhilesh Yadav were in talks, intermittently, for more than a year. Simultaneously, the SBSP chief had also been working on other alliances and frequently met AIMIM chief Assaduddin Owaisi and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) chief Shivpal Yadav (Akhilesh’s uncle).
Om Prakash Rajbhar had founded the SBSP in 2002. His party contested all the Lok Sabha and assembly elections (both in eastern UP and in some constituencies of Bihar) since then. The SBSP has its support base among the Rajbhar and a few other backward class communities in eastern UP and the bordering areas of Bihar.
The SBSP had its first electoral success when Rajbhar had allied with the BJP ahead of the 2017 UP assembly polls. The SBSP had won four seats then and the BJP government inducted Om Prakash Rajbhar as the minister for backward classes and disabled welfare. However, the relationship soured soon after Rajbhar’s frequent statements against the Yogi and Modi governments. He had been demanding “better treatment” of Rajbhars and also the inclusion of the community in the list of scheduled castes.
{{/usCountry}}The SBSP had its first electoral success when Rajbhar had allied with the BJP ahead of the 2017 UP assembly polls. The SBSP had won four seats then and the BJP government inducted Om Prakash Rajbhar as the minister for backward classes and disabled welfare. However, the relationship soured soon after Rajbhar’s frequent statements against the Yogi and Modi governments. He had been demanding “better treatment” of Rajbhars and also the inclusion of the community in the list of scheduled castes.
{{/usCountry}}In 2019, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had dismissed Om Prakash Rajbhar from the state cabinet after he accused the government of not doing enough for the backward castes.
The Yogi government also dismissed seven members of SBSP, including Rajbhar’s son Arvind Rajbhar, from their posts in various UP government committees.
The Samajwadi Party confirmed the alliance through a statement in which the Samajwadi Party state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “This is the beginning of the end of the oppressive rule of the BJP...the founder of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Shri Omprakash Rajbhar, has always been fighting for the poor, farmers, labourers, downtrodden and backward classes. SBSP has always talked about social justice, whether it is reservation based on population and economic status, implementation of the report of the social justice committee, technical education in primary schools, domestic electricity bill waiver, 50% reservation for women, free treatment to the poor, employment to the unemployed…etc.”
Chaudhary further said: “There are 18-22% Rajbhar voters in Purvanchal with SBSP. The party influences more than 150 seats of eastern UP. There is deep penetration in the assembly seats of Varanasi, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh divisions of the state. SBSP also has a stronghold on sub-castes like Bansi, Aarkh, Arkvanshi, Kharwar, Kashyap, Pal, Prajapati, Bind, Banjara, Bari, Biar, Vishwakarma, Nai and Paswan.”
While Om Prakash Rajbhar had been interacting with Owaisi or Shivpal, he also had met UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh in August, triggering speculation that SBSP and BJP would ally again.
After the meeting with Swatantra Dev Singh, Om Prakash Rajbhar had said: “In politics, anything can happen. In politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies.”
Om Prakash Rajbhar had also formed a Bhagidari Morcha for smaller anti-BJP parties to ally.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had been saying that his party would not ally with any big political parties and would strike strategic alliances with small, regional anti-BJP parties. He had been also saying that with its allies, SP will win 400 seats in 2022 polls. Polls are likely to be held early next year for the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.