RS polls: BJP sends minister to placate angry partner
LUCKNOW: A day after its Uttar Pradesh ally the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said vote of his party’s four lawmakers to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘ninth’ candidate wasn’t a certainty in the March 23 Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP stepped up efforts to woo the angry OBC leader.
The party rushed its senior leader and cabinet minister Suresh Khanna to placate Rajbhar, whose four MLAs are crucial in BJP’s plan of stopping joint opposition candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar (BSP).
Khanna later described the meeting as a ‘routine affair’. “We both are ministers in the same government and such meetings are a regular affair,” Khanna said.
Khanna even got Rajbhar to talk to UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, who is an MP from Chandauli.
However, Rajbhar made it clear that he would attend alliance meetings only after talking to party’s national chief Amit Shah, who was instrumental in inking a pact with Rajbhar’s outfit ahead of the 2017 UP polls.
“I have made my position clear to Khanna,” Rajbhar said while admitting that after his Sunday’s Basti rally BJP leaders have started “calling” him again.
In that rally, Rajbhar had targeted all the parties, including the BJP whom it had accused of not following ‘gathbandhan dharma’ (alliance principal) and urged his supporters to boycott meetings of all political parties, including the BJP.
There is no threat to the stability of the BJP government in UP even if Rajbhar pulls out of the government. However, the timing of his ‘anger’ has made the BJP jittery. On its own strength, the BJP with 311 MLAs is in a position to ensure win of 8 RS candidates, each of whom would require support of 37 lawmakers for an outright win. That makes it 296 MLAs, leaving BJP and allies Apna Dal (9) and SBSP (4) with spare 28 votes.
Anil Agarwal is its ninth candidate, through whom the party plans to test opposition unity.
The SP along with the Congress and the RLD have assured the BSP candidate of support in the Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP, embarrassed by its stunning defeat in the Lok Sabha by-polls of Gorakhpur and Phulpur, is hoping to get even in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, whose chance meeting with Rajbhar’s son had given rise to speculations about Yadav trying to win over the SBSP, has already accused the BJP of encouraging horse trading.
Among the candidates put up by BJP for the Rajya Sabha polls is Sakaldeep Rajbhar from Ballia in east UP. He is being seen as BJP’s efforts to create its own ‘Rajbhar leadership’, party leaders admit.
The Rajbhars constitute roughly 2.6 per cent of the state’s population and have a presence in nearly 100 plus assembly seats in eastern UP. The buzz is that Om Prakash Rajbhar, who hit out at the BJP during his Basti rally, might be dropped in next reshuffle of the Yogi ministry due soon.
Until Rajbhar sounded a warning, the BJP having been assured of support of SP MLA Nitin Agarwal, whose father Naresh switched to the BJP last week, was also hoping to gain from the SP’s family feud. But political experts say that the BJP’s defeat in the LS by-polls might have changed equations.