Sure that I & Dara will get ministerial berth: Rajbhar

The defeat of Chauhan, who returned to the BJP from the SP recently, came as a setback to the party and its allies, who had not left any stones unturned with the run-up to the bypoll saw bigwigs like Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several ministers and its allies campaigning for Chauhan, who lost to the SP’s Sudhakar Singh by 42,759 votes.

Asked if Chauhan and he would become ministers in the UP government, Rajbhar said, “Why won’t we? Are the people in Opposition parties deciding? I am again saying that the bosses of NDA are not people in the Opposition. But the chief is Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah ji and JP Nadda ji. Have patience. I am telling those who are bothered that they should be patient. I hope they won’t get a heart attack. We will become ministers.

Talking about the reasons behind Chauhan’s defeat, Rajbhar said, “One reason is the BSP was not contesting…. We saw people from the SP distributing money. We complained and many people were detained, too. It was the second reason. The third reason is the reaction to the candidate. Because of this, the votes got scattered. Had there been a local candidate, the result would have been different. The BJP is a big party and gave the ticket after thinking about it. We gave everything to it. All the allies gave everything. The real power is with the people. We will work on organising our party.” However, Samajwadi Party state spokesperson Faraz Kidwai said Rajbhar’s aspiration to become a minister “will remain a dream”.