SP will celebrate the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

Desperate to cobble together a winning combination and retain support in Rajput community, Samajwadi Party will celebrate the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap in a grand function in Lucknow on May 9. 

The SP will project former minister Arvind Singh `Gope’ as the Rajput face of the party. Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav is also expected to grace the occasion. 

Senior Rajput leader Bhagwati Singh and other leaders of the community will have prominent places on the dais on the occasion.

The SP brass is worried over the drift of Rajput community towards the BJP after Yogi Adityanath took over as Chief Minister. The unkindest cut for the Rajputs was the electoral alliance of SP with the Bahujan Samaj Party. The community is hostile towards the BSP ever since Mayawati as Chief Minister in January 2003, slapped the draconian anti-terror law POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act) on Independent MLA from Kunda, Raghuraj Prtatap Singh `Raja Bhaiyya and his father. Both were released from jail after Mulayam Singh Yadav took over as the Chief Minister in August, 2003.

Though Raja Bhaiyya was a cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government since March 2012, the latter never had a comfortable relations with the Kunda MLA. Both finally parted company in March this year, after Raja Bhaiyya ditched the SP president and voted for BJP candidate in Rajya Sabha elections.

Raja Bhaiyya had resigned in March 2013 after his political rivals alleged his hand in the murder of Deputy SP of Kunda. The case was referred to the CBI which gave a clean chit to Raja Bhaiyya. 

Akhilesh Yadav was reluctant to reinduct him in the cabinet but had to yield following pressure by his father Mulayam Singh.

Much to the chagrin of Akhilesh, the Kunda MLA attended the dinner party thrown by the SP patron for party MLAs and allies on the eve of voting for Rajya Sabha elections on March 22.  After voting for the BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha polls, Raja Bhaiyya tweeted that `he was with Akhilesh Yadav and will remain with him but that should not be taken as support for the BSP candidate’.

BSP chief Mayawati lost no time in taking a dig at Raja Bhaiyya saying, “I had cautioned Akhilesh Yadav against relying on Raja Bhaiyya, but he ignored as he lacks experience in politics.’’

A SP leader said ``end of relation of the party with Raja Bhaiyya is a big blow for the party  and we have to compensate this  loss at the earliest  ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections’’.