Om Prakash Rajbhar-led SBSP Joins NDA To Contest 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Alongside BJP

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, has announced its alliance with the BJP-led NDA for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. They will be fighting as a part of the alliance.

In a tweet, SBSP national president Rajbhar said, “BJP and SBSP have come together. Together, the two will fight for social justice, the country’s security and protection, good governance, and to strengthen the deprived, backward, Dalits, women, farmers, youth, and every marginalised section.”

The decision to contest the elections together was made during a meeting in Delhi with Home Minister Amit Shah on 14 July, Rajbhar told news agency ANI.

The SBSP had previously allied with the BJP in the 2017 UP assembly elections. Rajbhar was made the Minister for Backward Classes Welfare in the first cabinet of CM Yogi Adityanath. However, he resigned shortly after staging a sit-in in Ghazipur, demanding the removal of the District Magistrate of the time, Sanjay Kumar Khatri.

During the 2022 UP assembly elections, the SBSP formed an alliance with the SP. However, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated over time. In the 2022 Presidential polls, Rajbhar cross-voted in favour of the NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu, who emerged as the winner.

Rajbhar was accused by the SP of having a connection with the BJP and working towards strengthening the saffron party. The SP expressed their willingness to let Rajbhar go if he believed he would find more respect elsewhere.

Since then, Rajbhar's stance towards the BJP has softened, while also considering his future options with the BSP, where he initially began his political career.

UP BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary had said earlier this year about Rajbhar: "No one is untouchable for the BJP. Whoever agrees with the views of the BJP, the party is ready to take him with it. The BJP is a big ocean. Rajbhar is our old friend."

In a recent development, Dara Singh Chauhan, an SP member and legislator in the UP assembly, has reportedly resigned from his position. Sources indicate that Chauhan is likely to join the BJP in the near future.