A big turn of events is now being witnessed in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP-led NDA had trumped opposition alliance led by Samajwadi Party (SP) in the recently concluded assembly elections. The NDA’s former ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by Om Prakash Rajbhar contested the assembly polls in alliance with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. According to various media reports, Rajbhar is likely to sever his alliance with the SP and return to the NDA.
The rumour mills started running after Rajbhar reportedly met senior BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Sunil Bansal yesterday. It is also being claimed that Rajbhar may get a berth in Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet as well. However, there is no official confirmation in this regard, neither from the BJP nor from the SBSP.
Rajbhar, who had parted ways with the BJP in 2019, won six seats this time out of 19 that it contested. Rajbhar himself got elected from the Zahoorabad assembly seat for the second consecutive time. The Zahoorabad seat comes in Ghazipur district where the NDA failed to win even a single seat. The BJP-led alliance got a thumping majority as it won 273 seats out of 403 seats. The SP alliance won 125 seats. Anupriya Patel led Apna Dal and Sanjay Nishad led Nishad Party are the constituents of the BJP-led NDA in Uttar Pradesh.
Notably, Rajbhar had admitted to sensing defeat after the first phase of the seven-phase election. Speaking to media two days after the results were declared on March 10, Rajbhar said that he kept mum even after knowing that the alliance failed to read people’s minds.
Yogi Adityanath is set to return as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The swearing-in of the NDA cabinet will take place next week.