UP Assembly Polls: Can back BJP if OBC leader is named CM candidate, says Rajbhar

Two years after parting ways with the ruling BJP, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Tuesday met UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and vice-president Dayashankar Singh in Lucknow, hinting at the possibility of an alliance between the two parties ahead of the Assembly elections in UP due early next year.

Rajbhar, who for the past one year has been stitching together an alliance of smaller parties, initially termed the meeting a “courtesy call” but later admitted he was open to the idea of realigning.

“The BJP is keen to forge an alliance… If our demands, including the announcement of a backward caste person as CM candidate, a census to collate the backward caste population, 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha, common and compulsory free education, free electricity to households, ban on liquor and implementation of Samajik Nyaya Samiti report are met, then we can consider an alliance,” Rajbhar, who is an OBC leader, said.

BJP state vice-president Dayashankar, who was present in the meeting, said: “It was just a courtesy visit, which has opened up possibilities for the future.”

“…While the meeting has opened possibilities, there are no conditions attached… During the recent Union Cabinet reshuffle, OBC leaders from UP were given prominence.”