BJP govt betraying backward students: UP mantri Rajbhar

Lucknow, April 19: A day after a UP minister heaped praise on BSP supremo Mayawati and then retracted it, another Cabinet member embarrassed the Yogi Adityanath government by accusing it of betraying backward class students. "I am ready to quit the government any time, if I am asked to do so," Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party ( SBSP) leader and Uttar Pradesh backward class welfare minister Om Prakash Rajbhar told PTI on Thursday.

The BJP ally complained that the students were not getting the scholarships meant for them. "There is a lot of hue and cry in the entire state over scholarships and fee reimbursement of backward class students," he said. "This is injustice against them. The state government is betraying them. Of the 26 lakh backward class students, about 11 lakh have not benefited till now," the minister said. Rajbhar had recently kept Bharatiya Janata Party on tenterhooks over his support for a candidate in Rajya Sabha polls.

Asked whether his SBSP will continue its alliance with BJP till 2019, Rajbhar said, "We have formed an alliance till 2024. If BJP says it does not need us, I will immediately return them my ministerial post." "If raising voice for the backwards is wrong, then BJP can immediately snap ties with us," he added. The minister said the state has a budget of ` 3,000 crore for scholarships but only ` 1,085 has been allotted for the for backward class students.