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This is an archive article published on February 9, 2022
If trains carry 300 passengers, why can’t bikes carry 3: SBSP chief vows to end challan for bikes
"A train carries 300 passengers on 70 seats and doesn't get challans... why's there a challan if three people ride a bike?” Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar told reporters on Wednesday.
Om Prakash Rajbhar (File)
In a rather bizarre poll promise, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar vowed to waive challans for bikes carrying three passengers if its alliance with the Samajwadi Party is voted to power in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
“A train carries 300 passengers on 70 seats and doesn’t get challans… why’s there a challan if three people ride a bike?” he told reporters on Wednesday. “When our govt comes to power, three riders will be able to ride a bike for free, otherwise, we’ll put challan on jeeps/trains.”
A former BJP ally, the SBSP, which is now part of the Samajwadi Party(SP)-led alliance, has been trying to expand its footprint in the poll-bound state.
During the 2017 polls in Uttar Pradesh, when the BJP-led coalition swept the state winning a total of 325 seats in the 403-member state Assembly, the SBSP, which had then fought the polls in alliance with the saffron party, had won four seats after contesting from eight constituencies — all in eastern UP, its known stronghold.
Rajbhar became an MLA for the first time and was later appointed minister for backward classes welfare. But two years later, disgruntled with the BJP, he withdrew from the alliance and resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet.
So far, the SBSP has announced its candidates from three seats, including one in eastern UP’s Balha (Bahraich) and, to the surprise of many, two in central UP — in Sandila (Hardoi) and Misrikh (Sitapur).
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