The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
UP Dy CM ‘ forces’ SBSP leader to bow before BJP cadre, sparks row
‘ Insult’ to OBC community: Akhilesh
A ROW erupted Friday when a video went viral purportedly showing Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party ( SBSP) leader Arvind Rajbhar, son of party chief and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, sitting with folded hands at a BJP workers’ meeting and then being asked to bow before them by Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak.
Sources told The Indian Express the meeting in Ghosi was “called for better coordination between the BJP and SBSP cadre” in the constituency from where Arvind is contesting in LS polls. The SBSP is part of BJP- led NDA.
Hitting out at the BJP, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that it amounted to insulting the OBC Rajbhar community.
“This is the arrogance of the dominant people of BJP who are forcing the leader of their own alliance party to bow down and apologise. This is the height of humiliation,” Akhilesh said on X, tagging the video.
Seeking an apology from the BJP, Akhilesh said: “The entire BJP should collectively apologise for this misdeed. The BJP has insulted not just one individual but the entire community to which he belongs. The Rajbhar community will vote against BJP in protest for this insult.”
However, Arvind said he was “merely taking the blessings of workers”. “Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak had come to the district. All workers from district were called. Pathak ji said in order to ensure victory, the support of the workers is needed. That is why I sought the blessings of workers,” he told The Indian Express.
It is learnt that at the meeting BJP workers had expressed “their resentment over Om Prakash Rajbhar’s previous statements on BJP” from the period when “the SBSP and BJP were not allies”. “Sensing the mood of party leaders, Brajesh Pathak asked Arvind to bow before them,” a leader present at the meeting said.
The SBSP had contested the 2017 UP Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP. The party had won four seats. After the NDA'S victory, Rajbhar was appointed as the Backward Class minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet.
However, the SBSP walked out of NDA before the 2019 LS elections. This occurred in the wake of Rajbhar targeting the Yogi government over the issue of internal reservations. Subsequently, the SBSP leaders had hit out at the BJP on several occasions.
The SBSP contested the 2022 Assembly elections in alliance with the SP, and winning 6 seats. It ended ties with SP after the polls and joined NDA last year.
In 2022 polls, the SBSP had fielded Abbas Ansari, son of gangster- turned- politician Mukhtar Ansari who died recently in Banda prison, from Mau Assembly seat. After Ansari’s death, Om Prakash Rajbhar called him a “krantikari” and “messiah of the poor”. The BJP workers had reportedly joined issue with Arvind over his father’s statement lauding Ansari.