nda-ally-sbsp-seeks-32-seats-in-up-polls-eyes-azamgarh

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, has staked claim to 32 seats for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with the aim to wrest the Samajwadi Party's stronghold of Azamgarh. Speaking to the media, the party's national general secretary and chief spokesperson Arun Rajbhar said the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is working at the grassroots level and confirmed that it has sought a share of 32 seats within the NDA.

 

"I am active in the Atraulia assembly constituency and will be the NDA candidate there. Discussions have already taken place. The SBSP has staked claim to Mehnagar, Didarganj and Atraulia seats in Azamgarh," he said.

 

Meanwhile, BJP state spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava said that the NDA's top leadership takes decisions on all policy matters after consultations with leaders of all alliance partners. He said seat-sharing arrangements would be decided through discussions between the NDA leadership and the SBSP leadership at the appropriate time and by mutual consensus.

 

Targeting the Samajwadi Party (SP), Arun Rajbhar claimed that it secured more seats in the last assembly elections largely due to the support base of SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar in the region.

 

In the 2022 polls, SBSP was allied with the SP and contested 19 seats, winning six. However, a few months after the results, Rajbhar severed ties with the SP and rejoined the NDA.

 

Previously, in the 2017 elections in the state, the SBSP contested eight seats as part of the NDA and won four, including one by party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar.

 

The SP will be "taught a lesson" in eastern Uttar Pradesh this time, Arun Rajbhar claimed, as his preparations appear to be focused on Azamgarh, considered one of the SP's strongest bastions.

 

Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is currently Uttar Pradesh's Panchayati Raj minister, has been consistently targeting Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the 2027 assembly polls. He has challenged the SP's hold on Azamgarh, taunting the party chief for the "MY" or Muslim-Yadav social coalition in the region.

 

Political observers say Om Prakash Rajbhar appears to be at the forefront of the NDA's efforts to blunt the appeal of Yadav's PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyank) with a Hindutva counter-narrative. The SBSP chief can be now seen taking an unusually aggressive stand on matters involving Muslims. Once a vocal critic of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajbhar is now broadly aligned with the BJP's Hindutva agenda, experts say.

 

Recently, the state Panchayati Raj minister made a remark about the case of a "terrorist" being arrested from the SP's stronghold, following the arrest of Mohammad Sheikh, a suspected member of a Pakistan-backed terror network from Azamgarh earlier this month.

While commenting on the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Surya Chauhan in Ghaziabad, which resulted in the main accused being killed in a police encounter, Rajbhar alleged that SP leaders were defending criminals and questioned whether the PDA model amounted to a system where "Yadavs and minorities would beat others".

 

The SBSP chief's rhetoric towards Muslims was considerably less confrontational during his alliance with the SP in 2022 and even while he was with the NDA in the 2017 polls.

 

Back in 2012, he contested the assembly elections in alliance with Qaumi Ekta Dal, the party linked to the family of late mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. In 2022, Abbas Ansari, Mukhtar's son, contested and won the Mau assembly seat on an SBSP ticket.

 

Alongside his new political positioning, O P Rajbhar is attempting to expand his influence among other Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) in Azamgarh and neighbouring districts, political analysts say. In this effort, he is also likely to benefit from the support of NDA allies such as the Nishad Party and Apna Dal (Sonelal), which has a strong base among Kurmis.

 

Notably, the SP won all 10 assembly seats falling under the Azamgarh district in the 2022 polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SP maintained its lead in eastern Uttar Pradesh, winning 37 of the state's 80 parliamentary seats, including Azamgarh, Ghosi, Ghazipur, Ballia, Salempur, Sultanpur, Faizabad (Ayodhya), Shravasti and Pratapgarh.

 

Arun Rajbhar told the media, "The SP says Azamgarh is a stronghold of Yadavs and Muslims, but Rajbhars are the largest community there. Nishads, Chauhans, Pals and Prajapatis are also present in large numbers. Yet, in Akhilesh's eyes, only Yadavs and Muslims matter.

 

Under the NDA's leadership, we are prepared to break this stronghold. We have been working there for the past three years." Further, defending the party's current positioning, Arun Rajbhar said, "The government restored our ancestors' heritage sites, forts and ruins due to the efforts of Om Prakash Rajbhar. The fair at Ghazi Miyan's shrine in Bahraich was stopped. Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 14 prime ministers never even mentioned Maharaja Suheldev.

 

"Today, there are numerous schemes in his name, memorials in Bahraich, a state university in Azamgarh and several other initiatives," he said.

 

He added that the SBSP's long-term agenda includes constructing a grand temple dedicated to Maharaja Suheldev and reviving a traditional fair in the Bahraich-Shravasti region.

 

SP chief spokesperson and former Uttar Pradesh minister Rajendra Chaudhary, however, told the media that Om Prakash Rajbhar's rhetoric will "have no impact". "Everyone knows who is making him say these things." He further said, "The strength Rajbhar got in 2022 came from Akhilesh Yadav. His six MLAs won because of that alliance. Now, he wants to please his political masters after joining the ruling camp. By 2027, he will become politically irrelevant. He will not win from anywhere, including Azamgarh." Meanwhile, political observers argue that SBSP's efforts could benefit the NDA. Rajbhar represents the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, which is believed to account for between 10 and 18 per cent of the electorate across nearly 100 assembly seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh, including in Varanasi, Vindhyachal, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh and Ayodhya divisions. 

 

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