Ahead of Shah’s Lucknow visit, SBSP indicates support for Uniform Civil Code

Shah, as the then BJP chief, had inked a pact with the SBSP ahead of the 2017 UP assembly elections. After the BJP swept the polls, Rajbhar was made a cabinet minister in the first cabinet of chief minister Yogi Adityanath

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by Om Prakash Rajbhar on Saturday dropped hints of edging closer to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the eve of Union home minister Amit Shah’s Lucknow visit and indicated the party’s support for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently referred to.

Union home minister Amit Shah (File Photo)

The SBSP leaders also targeted the opposition parties for not implementing the report of the social justice committee when they were in power.

The government’s push for a Uniform Civil Code, seen by many analysts as a sharply polarising issue, seems to have already polarised the opposition parties, with some openly supporting the move, and others strongly opposed to it.

“The SBSP will play a crucial role in deciding who gets to the Delhi throne as our party has an effective presence in more than 30 Lok Sabha seats in UP. That is why our cadres need to maintain an effective booth-level presence,” Om Prakash Rajbhar said at a party meeting in Lucknow on Saturday.

SBSP chief general secretary Arvind Rajbhar said, “Our party will support each law and each move that helps the country.”

“UCC talks of one common civil code for the country, and this is in line with the spirit of the Constitution too,” Arvind Rajbhar said, in a broad indication of the party’s political inclination ahead of Shah’s arrival.

Recently after his US trip, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the BJP booth workers in Bhopal during which he made a strong case for the implementation of UCC.

UCC refers to a common set of laws governing personal matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption, among others, of all citizens. In the Constitution, UCC is a part of the non-justiciable directive principles of state policy. In a 2018 consultation paper, the law commission said UCC was “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”. In the Constitution, it is a part of the non-justiciable directive principles of state policy. In a 2018 consultation paper, the law commission said UCC was “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”.

Shah, as the then BJP chief, had inked a pact with the SBSP ahead of the 2017 UP assembly elections. After the BJP swept the polls, Rajbhar was made a cabinet minister in the first cabinet of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

However, the alliance between the two ended just after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as Rajbhar accused the BJP of not implementing the social justice committee report.

The SBSP contested the 2022 UP assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), however, it fell out with the SP after the elections. Now, the SBSP is dropping hints of getting close to the BJP again ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“Those parties, which never remembered to implement the report of the social justice committee when they were in power, start talking of it when they are out of power,” Rajbhar said at the event in an apparent reference to the SP.