Coffee with HT: SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar stresses on joint cadre-connect programme

Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar feels when leaders of different parties enter a pact ahead of elections, it does not always mean that their cadres too are part of the signup.

That was the reason why in his discussion with the BJP’s top national and state leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, party president JP Nadda, state unit chief Bhupendra Chaudhary and deputy CM Brajesh Pathak, the OBC leader has stressed on a joint cadre-connect programme.

“In my meeting with chief minister Yogi Adityanath, too, I would emphasise the need for karyakarta sammelan or joint cadre meetings. They can decide any other name they want as they are a bigger partner, but the whole idea should be to connect with cadres on the ground,” Rajbhar said at the Coffee with HT programme at the Hindustan Times office in Lucknow on Thursday.

“In our case, our cadre quickly reads the message,” he said while recalling how on July 9, 2016, the then BJP chief Amit Shah attended a joint rally from the SBSP stage in east UP and helped send out a big message to the cadres and voters about the BJP-SBSP alliance for the 2017 U.P. assembly polls.

After a brief period of bonhomie, the alliance came unstuck soon after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Now, after a fresh pact with the BJP ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Rajbhar has sought time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a big joint rally in Azamgarh in October.

The choice of Azamgarh, which was won by the BJP in the June 2022 by-polls, isn’t without reason.

In the 2022 UP assembly polls, with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav as the Azamgarh MP, the SP had won all 10 assembly seats in the district, dominated by backwards and Muslims. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mulayam Singh Yadav had contested from Azamgarh in a bid to stop the BJP from cashing in on the Modi wave in Purvanchal after Modi decided to contest from adjacent Varanasi. Both Modi and Mulayam had won their seats though MSY’s move to stop the BJP in Purvanchal didn’t work.

“People do ask why SP-BSP arrangement didn’t work out ... so I think the answer is in the arrangement that Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram entered into in 1993. Because in that arrangement efforts were made to align the local leaders on the ground with the pact. Back then, reasons for the pact were explained to the cadres on the ground. This helped allay fears on the ground. But in 2019, the SP-BSP pact was entered into behind closed doors. After the decision, the leaders flew out in their helicopters, attended rallies and returned,” Om Prakash Rajbhar said.