With Bihar headed for the Assembly elections in October-November this year, the BJP's Uttar Pradesh ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), is gearing up to make inroads in the state being ruled by the NDA. In Bihar, apart from the BJP and the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), the NDA has three other constituents – the Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV), Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM(S) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha. As the lead player of the NDA despite having conceded the chief ministership in Bihar to its junior partner JD(U), the BJP is likely to face pressure from its OBC-centric UP ally SBSP in the seat-sharing exercise for the Bihar polls. SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar is currently a minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet in UP. SBSP leaders claim that they have already apprised the BJP leadership of its preparedness in 25 Assembly seats in Bihar. They indicated that the SBSP could settle for 15 seats if the BJP offered the party the seats of its choice. At the same time, the SBSP has also kept its options open to ally with other parties if the BJP does not take it on board. “NDA is our first choice for alliance in Bihar. Discussions are going on with the BJP but a formal meeting with the party's central leadership is yet to happen. SBSP has made preparations in 25 seats. The response from BJP is positive. But if BJP does not agree to accommodate SBSP in seat-sharing, we will look for alliance with other regional parties including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD),” said Arun Rajbhar, SBSP general secretary. The 25 seats the SBSP has shortlisted are across 28 districts including Sasaram, West Champaran, Nawada, Nalanda, Gaya, Aurangabad and Bettiah, among others. As part of its preparations for the Bihar polls, the SBSP has held 24 rallies in different parts of Bihar in the past three months, party sources said. The last rally the party held was “Mahila jago-jagao maharally” in Purnia district on January 30. It is now going to hold its next public meeting on March 17 in West Champaran. Through these rallies, the SBSP has been trying to connect with the OBCs and Mahadalits (extremely backward Dalits), which are part of the vote banks of the JD(U) as well as the principal Opposition RJD. The SBSP claims to have a support base among some OBC groups such as Rajbhar, Rajwar, Rajvanshi and Rajghosh, who reportedly make up about 4.5 per cent of Bihar's population. “We have held several rallies of women to create awareness among them about their social and political rights so that they would also make their families aware about it. In these rallies, we are discussing reservation for women and the need for increasing quota for OBCs and SCs/STs,” Arun Rajbhar said. Presence in Bihar Last year, the SBSP had campaigned for the BJP in the Tirari and Ramgarh Assembly bypolls in Bihar, which the BJP won. Arun Rajbhar said his party had also contested the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls in alliance with the AIMIM. While the SBSP lost from the two seats it fought, the AIMIM won five seats out of 20 it contested. The SBSP, which severed ties with the NDA ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, made a comeback to the alliance in July 2023 after the BJP, in an internal survey, found that the former could help the party gain an edge in about 12 Lok Sabha seats in east UP. As compared to his previous alliance with the NDA when Om Prakash Rajbhar used to often attack the BJP-led UP government, the SBSP chief has been maintaining cordial ties with the BJP leadership this time. The SBSP had allied with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2022 UP polls, winning six of the 19 seats it contested. In the 403-member Assembly, the BJP bagged 255 seats, while the SP won 111 seats. The Opposition alliance's failure to clinch the polls caused fissures in it with Om Prakash Rajbhar stepping up his criticism of Akhilesh that led to the SP-SBSP break-up.
