‘Y’ category security for Om Prakash Rajbhar in UP after voting for Murmu

Under the 'Y' category security cover, a protectee is provided 11 security personnel, including two personal security officers (PSO)

Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar. Credit: PTI Photo

Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, an ally of the Samajwadi Party (SP), was given ‘Y’ category security, after his party—with six MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh assembly—voted for the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Droupadi Murmu in the recently concluded Presidential election. Rajbhar also dropped hints that he could join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024.

“The divorce papers (of parting ways with the SP) are ready…it only needs Akhilesh Yadav’s signature,” Rajbhar said, when he was asked about the future of his party’s alliance with SP.

“We will think about marriage (alliance) after the divorce,” he said, adding that the electoral equations in India’s biggest state would change “dramatically” before the next general elections.

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Rajbhar, who met with Union home minister and former BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi recently, decided to support Murmu thereafter, saying that Shah had sought his support.

Since the Samajwadi Party’s defeat in the recently held Lok Sabha by-polls for Azamgarh and Rampur seats, Rajbhar was on a warpath against Akhilesh, as both constituencies were supposed to be SP bastions. “Akhilesh preferred to remain confined in his AC room and did not bother to campaign in Azamgarh and Rampur…I campaigned in Azamgarh out of coalition dharma,” the SBSP chief had said.

Akhilesh, however, appeared to be indifferent to Rajbhar’s threat, and claimed the latter turned against him under “pressure” from some “outside elements”. “We do not require advice from anyone...we can manage without the help of outsiders,” Yadav had said.

The SBSP had contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in alliance with the SP and had won six seats. The SBSP, a caste-based party, enjoys support of the 'Rajbhar' community, which forms around four per cent of the electorate in the state—especially in a dozen districts in eastern UP.

According to sources in the BJP here, the saffron party was wooing Rajbhar, given his strong support base among his community members.