Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, claimed on Sunday that he along with BJP’s Dara Singh Chauhan would soon be inducted as cabinet ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government.
Chauhan suffered a crushing defeat in the bypoll to Ghosi assembly seat on September 8. Rajbhar is an object of ridicule and scorn from the Samajwadi Party after the Ghosi setback as he had taken the responsibility for ensuring the victory of the BJP candidate in the by-election.
Dara Singh Chauhan is a party hopper who resigned from the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2017 to join the BJP. In 2017 UP assembly elections he was elected as BJP candidate and made a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. Ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls, he resigned from the BJP and joined the SP. He was elected to the assembly from Ghosi in 2022. In July last he resigned from the SP and joined the ruling BJP. He contested the Ghosi by-election and lost to SP’s Sudhakar Singh by a margin of 42,759 votes on Friday.
The SBSP chief, a prominent leader of Other Backward Classes in eastern Uttar Pradesh, was a key campaigner for Chauhan in Ghosi assembly constituency in Mau district which has a substantial Rajbhar caste vote.
Asked to react to the speculations of opposition leaders that he and Chauhan would not be made ministers after the bypoll result, Rajbhar said, “Why not? We will become ministers.”
“These opposition people are not out ‘maliks’ (bosses). We are in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and the ‘maliks’ of NDA are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda,” Rajbhar said.
The SBSP chief said the opposition parties should be patient and wait for a few days. “They should take care of their hearts as they might suffer a heart attack soon,” he added.
After the SBSP’s return to the NDA in July, Rajbhar had hinted that he and Chauhan may be inducted into the Yogi Adityanath cabinet.
When asked if the defeat in the bypoll would have a bearing on the SBSP-BJP ties, Rajbhar said, “We will be with the NDA. Our alliance is for the Lok Sabha polls and not the bypoll.”
“Those who are making these statements (SBSP’s ouster from NDA) are ignorant. After the 2024 general election results, they (SP) will fall flat on the ground,” he added.
The defeat in the Ghosi by-election is seen as a big political setback to Rajbhar, who was nursing big ambitions after returning to the NDA fold in July after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Rajbhar alleged that the BJP lost the by-election as the SP indulged in malpractices and distributed huge amounts of cash among the voters of Ghosi, particularly the Dalits and other poor communities.