SBSP vs SP in Ghosi as BJP leaves seat for ally

Uttar Pradesh minister and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar’s son Arvind Rajbhar, 36, will be the joint National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the Ghosi Lok Sabha seat in east U.P, where the BJP had lost to the SP-BSP alliance candidate in 2019.

Arvind Rajbhar, a PhD in political science, is the national general secretary of the SBSP and the eldest of the party chief’s two sons.

The Ghosi seat will be contested by the Samajwadi Party in alliance with the Congress. The SP is still to name its candidate on the seat with a sizeable number of OBCs and minorities.

After Bijnor and Baghpat, the two seats that the BJP left for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Ghosi is the third Lok Sabha seat BJP has left for an ally in Uttar Pradesh. BJP has four OBC allies in U.P. These are Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party as well as Rashtriya Lok Dal. There is speculation that the BJP may leave anywhere between six and eight seats for its allies in Uttar Pradesh.

“We are very confident of adding the seat to back BJP’s “400 paar (past 400)” seats target. We are aware that the sitting MP on the seat hardly did anything as he was caught in his own legal issues. That means that there would be lot of work to do in the constituency but as son of the soil I want to assure the masses that we will leave no stone unturned in bettering their lives,” Arvind Rajbhar said.

That Arvind has a challenge up his sleeve is apparent as, in September 2023, the BJP candidate for the Ghosi assembly seat Dara Singh Chauhan was defeated by Samajwadi Party candidate, who was also backed by the Congress. The BSP had not contested the by-poll that was caused by Chauhan quitting the seat that he had won on the Samajwadi Party symbol in the 2022 U.P. assembly poll. He contested it afresh as a BJP candidate following his switch to the ruling party.