Form of words:
New Delhi: Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar, after a long hiatus and embroiled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), last week alliance announced With Samajwadi Party (SP) for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Rajbhar is confident that the SP-SBSP alliance will “wipe out the BJP” from the state.
The SBSP represents the Rajbhar, a caste classified in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, and whose members are crucial to the electoral battle in eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Awadh region.
In the 2017 elections, BJP, which had an alliance with the SBSP, managed to increase its numbers from 72 to 72 in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In 2012, it was successful in 14 seats. aAt the same time, in 2017 the number of SPs in this region came down from 52 in 2012 to 9.
In the 2017 assembly elections, the SBSP contested eight seats, won four, and registered a vote share of around 34 per cent in these seats. If seen from this point of view, Rajbhar vote becomes important.
ThePrint explains who Rajbhar is and why the SBSP’s decision to forge an alliance with the SP has raised the political temperature in UP.
Rajbharsi
Rajbhar: Constitute About 3 per cent of UP’s population, community leaders claim, the actual figure is around 4.5 per cent.
In Uttar Pradesh, Rajbhar is considered an important community belonging to the OBC group. They believe that they are descendants of Maharaja Suheldeva of Shravasti, the medieval Hindu hero of the region. Suheldev is believed to have defeated the invading army of Ghazi Sayyid Salar Masud, nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni, in the 11th century.
“Rajbhar belongs to the OBC community and has a huge hold over 10-12 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. In these districts, their percentage goes up to 20-22 per cent, which can act as a deciding factor. They can play an important role in deciding the election results,” said Badri Narayan, political commentator and director of the GB Pant Institute of Social Sciences in Prayagraj.
Narayan said members of the community are mostly engaged in agricultural activities such as farming or grazing animals, while there are also many landless labourers.
However, he indicated that there may be a split in the Rajbhar vote, as since 2017 the BJP has also installed its own Rajbhar leaders.
“The BJP has also managed to establish its leadership, so there is a possibility of vote-sharing between the SBSP and the Rajbhar leaders of the BJP,” he said.
Read also: 6 BSP MLAs, 1 BJP MLA join Samajwadi Party before UP assembly elections
‘SP in pole position for advantage’
Arvind Kumar, Ph.D. A political scholar at the Royal Holloway, University of London, said the SP Rajbhar is in pole position to secure the vote.
“Ram Achal Rajbhar, who has significant influence, has joined Samajwadi Party” Om Prakash Rajbhar has tied up with,He also added that the community is mostly concentrated in Faizabad, Basti, Bahraich, Gonda, Sultanpur, Rae Bareli, Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Ballia among other areas, he said.
Kumar said the SBSP’s decision to forge an alliance with the SP would have an impact, given the trends in the 2017 assembly elections, where he says the community helped the BJP win eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“The community leaders are demanding the division of OBC reservation into three – Yadav, Kurmi and most backward (Rajbhar) – as they feel that they are not getting the benefits of reservation as they should. While the BJP had promised to look into it and even set up the Justice Rohini sub-categorization panel, it is only getting extension after extension. This has further increased the disillusionment of the leaders of Rajbhar,” Kumar said.
Kumar said the dilemma for the BJP is that other communities like the Kushwahas, Kurmis and Jats may be angered by the demands of Rajbhar and the SBSP. “This could be a major reason why BJP could not go into alliance with SBSP this time.”
‘BJP will be wiped out’
Speaking to ThePrint, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar reiterated that the BJP will be wiped out.
“BJP did nothing except betray OBCs and Dalits. He got votes in the name of Keshav Maurya but made a person from Uttarakhand the Chief Minister. “As far as the Rajbhar community is concerned, we have a significant hold in eastern Uttar Pradesh. We have 12-22 per cent votes in 156 seats.
Rajbhar, who also served as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government before resigning, further claimed that he not only had the support of his community, but also the support of others such as Prajapati, Banjara, Chauhan and Vishwakarma. Is.
SBSP general secretary and Om Prakash’s son Arun Rajbhar is confident that his vote will be transferred to the BJP in 2017 the same way he did to the BJP.
“In 2017, we had shown them the way to power, but this time BJP will be clean in Purvanchal. (In 2017 we showed them the way to power but this time BJP will be wiped out in Purvanchal)”, Arun told ThePrint.
The BJP, however, said that it too now has a stake in the Rajbhar community.
“We do not believe in caste based politics; We work for everyone. As far as Rajbhars are concerned, it is true that in 2017 we did not have our own leaders from the community, but with time the situation has changed,” said UP BJP vice-president Vijay Pathak.
“Anil Rajbhar is a minister in UP and Sakaldeep Rajbhar is a Rajya Sabha MP. we have been operating social conventions And people have given him a good response,” said Pathak.
(Edited by Arun Prashant)
Read also: 7 promises of UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made in ‘Pratigya Yatra’ flagged off
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