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Guest list at son’s wedding reception underlines importance of SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar before 2024 polls
The SBSP chief, who has perfected the art of the political flip-flop, would again be the most sought after Other Backward Classes (OBC) ally in eastern Uttar Pradesh for both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party.
The attendance at the wedding reception of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar’s son and the congratulatory messages received on the occasion have attracted attention with less than a year to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Over the last few days, the only time when Om Prakash hasn’t been accepting greetings on the phone on his son’s wedding is when he has been receiving VIPs.
The SBSP chief, who has perfected the art of the political flip-flop, would again be the most sought after Other Backward Classes (OBC) ally in eastern Uttar Pradesh for both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a congratulatory message, chief minister Yogi Adityanath also did so, albeit through his emissary. Former bureaucrat-turned-advisor Awanish Kumar Awasthi, deputy chief minister and BJP’s OBC Keshav Prasad Maurya, Samajwadi Party veteran Ram Gobind Chaudhary and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, other Yogi ministers, party veterans, Modi ministers and top bureaucrats attended the wedding reception at Rajbhar’s ancestral village in Varanasi, Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
What makes the SBSP chief so important?
“Back in 2017, the association with SBSP had worked brilliantly for BJP as it raised its tally from 14 seats that it won in the 2012 assembly polls from east UP to 72. The SP’s numbers sunk from 52 in 2012 to just seven in 2017. The SBSP got 34% votes, winning four of the eight seats it contested in alliance with BJP. In the 2022 UP assembly polls, the alliance with the SP proved beneficial for both. That is what makes Om Prakash Rajbhar an enigma for major political parties, chiefly the BJP and the SP. The line-up of leaders and congratulatory messages on his son’s marriage indicate his importance,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development.
The SBSP chief was a political nonentity until the then UP BJP in-charge Amit Shah discovered him and the potential of his 3-4% OBC Rajbhar vote bank in 2016. A year later, his party for the first time won four seats in 2017 UP polls that it contested in alliance with BJP.
He walked out of the ruling coalition shortly after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He was promptly embraced by the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2022 UP polls.
Despite a BJP wave, he managed to help his and the Samajwadi Party’s cause. While the SBSP won six seats in the 2022 UP polls, the SP’s tactical alliance with the SBSP and the RLD in east and west UP, respectively, helped more than double its tally from 47 to 111.
That is why, having calculated the importance of Rajbhar’s support, the BJP had rushed its then state vice-president Daya Shankar Singh, the current transport minister, to arrange a meeting between Rajbhar and the then UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev, in a desperate bid to call off the SP-SBSP alliance in the 2022 UP polls. That move failed then. But, post 2022 UP polls, Om Prakash, after alleging he wasn’t invited by the SP leadership for a meeting with the opposition’s Presidential nominee Yashwant Sinha, broke ranks with the SP to vote for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and current President Droupadi Murmu. He was promptly rewarded with a ‘Y’ category security cover by the Yogi 2.0 regime, making it apparent that BJP was wooing him again.
Om Prakash feels that he has relations across parties, the reason why there were so many guests and congratulatory messages. “Why read too much into a marriage function?” asked Om Prakash, keeping cards close to his chest and unwilling to reveal his political route in 2024.
Om Prakash feels that he has relations across parties, the reason why there were so many guests and congratulatory messages.
