Rajbhar returns to NDA ahead of 2024 poll battle

Lucknow: Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Sunday announced his return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) following a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah, a move that is likely to strengthen the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The announcement by the SBSP chief, who severed ties with the Samajwadi Party (SP) to join the ruling alliance, came minutes after Shah tweeted a photo of their meeting and welcomed OBC leader Rajbhar saying his entry will strengthen the NDA in Uttar Pradesh.

“The BJP and the SBSP have come together. The two parties will fight together for social justice, national security, good governance, the deprived, exploited, farmers, poor, Dalits, youth and women, and to empower every poor section,” Rajbhar tweeted in Hindi.

Rajbhar’s entry into the NDA fold underscores that there is a discernible acceleration in the BJP’s efforts to build an alliance ahead of the 2024 general elections. It has come in the wake of recent events that saw a section of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lawmakers led by Ajit Pawar joining the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra. It is clear that the party that has emerged the political hegemon over the past decade is working to a script.

The SBSP chief was accompanied by his son Arvind Rajbhar during meeting with Shah. Rajbhar’s return to the NDA is likely to strengthen the alliance in ‘Poorvanchal’ or eastern Uttar Pradesh, where the SBSP chief enjoys influence.

Rajbhar was a BJP ally and a minister in the state government, but had parted ways ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, where he was in alliance with the SP.

The development came two days ahead of the July 18 meeting of NDA partners in New Delhi, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also take part. Rajbhar confirmed having received BJP chief JP Nadda’s invite for the meeting, where the SBSP would now be the third BJP ally from the politically most significant state that sends 80 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP already has a pact with two other OBC parties from east Uttar Pradesh — the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the Nishad party.

“Now, the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh have been reduced to a no-contest as the opposition hardly stands a chance,” Rajbhar said at a press conference. “In the name of opposition unity, (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh Yadavji and (Bahujan Samaj Party chief) Mayawati were engaged in a battle of one-upmanship but (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi showed he was the biggest of them all.”

Reacting on the development, the Samajwadi Party said it will not have any impact on the proposed Opposition unity, a crucial second meeting of which will be held in Bengaluru on Monday and Tuesday.

“After nine years at the Centre and six years in UP, the BJP is striking humiliating deals with caste leaders, who were highly critical of the BJP until last year. This shows that the BJP is jittery due to SP chief pitching PDA [an acronym for an alliance of ‘pichda’ (backwards), ‘dalit’ and ‘alpshanyak’ (minorities)] as an answer to the NDA,” SP spokesperson Sudhir Panwar said.

“OP Rajbhar and Dara Singh Chauhan [who quit as an SP legislator on Saturday] won’t make any difference (to opposition unity) as they have lost all credibility and people know the reason for their change of heart,” Panwar added.

Political experts, meanwhile, said Union minister Shah is putting in an effort to ensure the BJP continued to get big numbers from UP by thwarting SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s call to defeat the NDA through “PDA”.

“That Shah was personally monitoring the plan to get Rajbhar’s party with about 3% OBC vote in east UP on board, shows the fine planning of the BJP and their anxiousness to use the 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP to make up for possible loss of seats from states such as Karnataka and Bihar,” Athar Siddiqui from the Centre for Objective Research and Development (CORD) said.