SBSP chief meets U.P. Dy CM Pathak, fuels tie-up speculations
Both OP Rajbhar and his party’s general secretary Arun played down the meeting describing it as a “personal meeting”
The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader and former minister Om Prakash Rajbhar met deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak at the latter’s Raj Bhavan Colony residence in Lucknow on Tuesday. The meeting fuelled fresh speculations about the likelihood of the SBSP joining the BJP-led-NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While some political leaders in the BJP as well as the SBSP indicated that things would be clearer on or after a likely rejig at the Centre and in BJP chief JP Nadda’s team, neither Rajbhar nor BJP leaders were willing to officially commit anything.
Both OP Rajbhar and his party’s general secretary Arun played down the meeting describing it as a “personal meeting” though if indications emanating from both the BJP and SBSP camps are anything to go by, a tie-up between the two parties is a possibility.
Pathak has been seen on several occasions with Rajbhar. Apart from Pathak, Yogi’s transport minister Daya Shankar Singh too has been active in attempting a pact between the BJP and the SBSP. Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, when asked about the political takeaway of the meeting, said that the “party high command” would take a call on the tie up.
“We are not enemies. The meetings happen. At times, they are over personal matters, at times political. But only the party high command will be able to take a call on tie ups,” said Maurya. Bedi Ram, the SBSP lawmaker from Jakhania assembly segment of Ghazipur, from where Om Prakash is also an MLA from Zahoorabad assembly segment, was also present at the meeting.
The buzz is that the BJP is interested in a Nishad party type arrangement with Rajbhar by offering a Lok Sabha ticket from Ghazipur to Rajbhar’s son and making Om Prakash a cabinet minister in Yogi 2.0. Some others suggested that while the BJP was only willing to leave a solitary seat to the SBSP, the latter was pushing for about 3 to 4 Lok Sabha seats by citing SBSP’s ability to win the seats in association with the BJP.
