BJP fortifies Purvanchal as SBSP joins NDA ahead of key Delhi meet

Twelve minutes after Union home minister Amit Shah’s 9.15am photo tweet on Sunday revealed the BJP’s 2024 push for Uttar Pradesh, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar confirmed his party’s pre-poll sign-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Minutes later, Rajbhar held a press conference and dropped broad hints about “Operation Lotus” while stating that “cracks and confusion” in the opposition ranks would widen.

The photo that Shah tweeted with a message of the SBSP joining the NDA was a yet unreleased one about his Friday’s meeting with Rajbhar in New Delhi. It conveyed how each political development involving Uttar Pradesh was being cleared after being vetted by the top leadership.

Rajbhar’s announcement came two days ahead of the July 18 meeting of NDA partners before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Rajbhar confirmed having received BJP chief JP Nadda’s invite for the meeting where the SBSP would now be the third BJP ally from U.P.

The BJP already has a pact with two other OBC parties from east U.P. – the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the Nishad party. The pact with the SBSP made the BJP’s intentions to fortify Purvanchal (east U.P.) obvious though the fine print of the seat-sharing agreement is still hazy.

“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, engaging in apparent “mind games” that are expected to intensify as the polls approach.

“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,” Rajbhar added. Asked for his views on caste census, a demand backed by the SP and which the SBSP too favoured in the past, Rajbhar said, “We stand by all our core issues.”

After meeting Rajbhar on Friday, Shah had met Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Dara Singh Chauhan within hours of him resigning as an SP MLA on Saturday. Chauhan represents the most backward Nonia caste and had won the Ghosi (Mau) assembly seat despite a BJP wave in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. He is now expected to rejoin the BJP soon.

Rajbhar had earlier predicted that several SP MLAs and leaders were in touch. Both he and his two sons Arvind and Arun, who too were present at the press conference, said the “exodus” would now begin.

“I will bring Dharam Singh Saini before you as well,” Rajbhar said. Saini, among the third OBC minister to quit the first Yogi government just ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, is from west U.P. His joining was earlier expected in November 2022 before being hurriedly put on hold, apparently due to resistance of local leaders.

Like Rajbhar, Chauhan and Saini originally hailed from the BSP before they joined the BJP which they later left. The then influential minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s exit triggered a scramble for the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly polls. Swami Prasad, whose daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is still a BJP MP, didn’t take calls seeking his response on the recent political developments.

As top BJP leaders and its allies welcomed their “purane saathi (old colleague)”, the SBSP chief, who kept flashing his trademark smile while targeting the SP, appeared a touch circumspect about disclosing the details of the “political deal” with the BJP.

“Wait till July 18. I can’t announce these decisions on my own as I am part of the alliance,” Rajbhar said to stonewall queries on the rewards — a cabinet berth in Yogi 2.0 along with a seat- sharing pact and adjustment of his cadres in various state-run corporations and boards – that are likely to follow as part of the deal.

Before arriving for the press conference, Rajbhar first gave a byte to a news agency and that too, he said, was done “as advised (by BJP leadership).”

Political experts said Shah is putting in an effort to ensure the BJP continued to get big numbers from U.P. by thwarting SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s call to defeat the NDA through “pichda, dalit alpshanyak or PDA, the acronym for an alliance of backwards, dalits and minorities.

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

BJP JITTERY, SAYS SP

“After nine years at the Centre and six years in U.P, 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 as an answer to the NDA. OP Rajbhar and Dara Singh Chauhan won’t make any difference (to opposition unity) as they have lost all credibility and people know the reason for their change of heart,” said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sudhir Panwar.