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SP ally OP Rajbhar’s party to support NDA presidential pick Murmu
Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly
Samajwadi Party (SP) ally Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) on Friday announced support for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.
Rajbhar announced the decision at a press conference in Lucknow. The SBSP has six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. Rajbhar said his party decided to support Murmu after appeals by Union home minister Amit Shah, Droupadi Murmu herself and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
“Yogi ji invited me and both he and Droupadi Murmu ji asked me to vote for her, Amit Shah ji called me and then met me and he too asked me to vote for Murmu but Akhilesh Yadav ji did not bother to either call me or invite me,” Rajbhar said.
The SBSP chief also referred to the July 7 meeting of the opposition parties that the SP hosted for their joint presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha in which Sinha was present.
Rajbhar also spoke of July 8 meeting that CM Yogi Adityanath hosted in support of the NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in which Murmu was present. Both the meetings were held in Lucknow.
Giving a chronology of events, he said: “On July 5, a ‘navratan’ (a leader from the coterie) of Akhilesh Yadav called our leader Arvind Rajbhar and said ‘you tread your path, we will tread ours (Aap apna dekh lo, hum apna dekh lengey). The next day, we got a call from the SP that we have been invited to the July 7 meeting. By evening, we were told that the meeting was cancelled. But we knew that the meeting was very much on.”
“The six SBSP MLAs, including me, came to Lucknow on July 7 and waited but we were never called. The other alliance partner of SP, Rashtriya Lok Dal and its chief Jayant Chaudhary were at the meeting. But we were not. We realised that we were not needed,” Rajbhar added.
“...But then I got a call from Yogi ji. Went to the meeting and met both Yogi ji and Droupadi Murmu. Both said ‘because you fight for the backwards, vote for Murmu’. I politely told them that I will first have to discuss it with my party. I then announced that SBSP will take a call and make an announcement on July 12,” he said.
“Then I got a call from Amit Shah ji on July 12 in which he asked me ‘What happened to your decision. It’s July 12’. I told him that the decision was on hold because, in between, the unfortunate demise of Mulayam Singh Yadav ji’s wife had happened. Then the next day, I met Amit Shah ji in Delhi. He said you struggle for backwards and Murmuji is from the most backward community--Adavasi. I told him that on July 15 we will make the announcement,” Rajbhar added.
“So here I am making the announcement today (July 15) that the SBSP MLAs will vote for Droupadi Murmu in the presidential elections”, he said. When asked if this means that he has snapped ties with the SP, he said: “No, we are very much with the SP”.
Hitting out at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Om Prakash Rajbhar said: “We were ready to go with the SP in the presidential elections but the party did not consider us worthy to be called at the meeting it held”.
Rajbhar said whenever in any alliance, he never made any bargains. “Of course, I ask for suitable opportunities for my party leaders,” he said. SBSP has six MLAs including Abbas Ansari, the son of jailed Mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. When asked if Abbas Ansari too would vote for Murmu, Rajbhar said: “Of course”.
He defended himself over his comments on Akhilesh Yadav and said: “What wrong did I say? I only asked him to come out of AC rooms and work among the public. I am like a lowly school teacher and working in the field and they are like university professors. I had campaigned in Azamgarh for 20 days but where were Akhilesh ji and his navratna (the coterie)?,”
Earlier, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia chief and Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav had announced that he will support NDA presidential candidate as the SP had not invited him to the meeting.
