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Journalism of Courage
The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, announced Sunday that it has joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a part of the alliance.
In a tweet, SBSP national president Rajbhar said, “BJP and SBSP have come together. Together, the two will fight for social justice, the country’s security and protection, good governance, and to strengthen the deprived, backward, Dalits, women, farmers, youth, and every marginalised section.”
“We met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 14 in Delhi and discussed various issues and decided to fight the 2024 elections together. A big power will be formed with the coming together of our parties. I want to thank Prime Minster Narendra Modi, Shah, and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for taking us along in the fight for development of the marginalised sections of society,” he told news agency ANI.
The SBSP had earlier fought the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP, and Rajbhar was appointed minister for backward classes welfare in the first Yogi Adityanath Cabinet. However, he resigned soon after, following a sit-in protest he staged in Ghazipur demanding the removal of then district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri.
SBSP had fought the 2022 UP Assembly elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), but the relationship soured later. Rajbhar had cross-voted in support of the NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu in the 2022 Presidential polls that she went on to win, following which the SP had said that he was free to go wherever he expected to get more respect.
In a letter, the SP then accused Rajbhar of having a “nexus” with the BJP and claimed that he was “working to strengthen the saffron party.” “If you feel that you will get more respect somewhere else, you are free to go there,” the party had said. Since then, Rajbhar’s stand towards BJP gradually softened, even as it looked like he was weighing his future with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), where he had started his career.
Earlier this year, UP BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary had said that Rajbhar was an “old friend”. “No one is untouchable for the BJP. Whoever agrees with the views of the BJP, the party is ready to take him with it. The BJP is a big ocean. Rajbhar is our old friend,” he had said.
On Saturday, SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan resigned from the UP Assembly with sources saying he would join the BJP soon.
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