Ally predicts loss for BJP in LS polls

Uttar Pradesh minister and president of BJP's alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar has predicted a huge loss for the saffron party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

''BJP could lose around 100 seats in the next LS polls,'' Rajbhar said adding that the surveys by most of the TV channels appeared to be ''correct''.

He said that the BJP government had failed to provide reservations for the EBCs (extremely backward castes) within the 27 % OBC quota. ''The EBCs are very upset with the BJP and will teach it a lesson in the polls,'' he remarked.

Rajbhar also warned that his party would ''sever'' all relations with the BJP if it failed to provide reservation for the EBCs within the OBC quota.

The SBSP president also said that he would ''boycott'' the state cabinet meeting to be held in the Kumbh on Tuesday.

''There is no point attending the cabinet meeting, when my demands are not heard,'' he added.

The SBSP president, whose party commanded considerable influence over the 'Rajbhar' (an OBC) community, who were in sizable numbers in around a dozen LS seats, mainly in the eastern UP districts of Ballia, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Mau, has been attacking the BJP governments at the centre and in the state for the past several months.

He mocked UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's reported claim that the latter could ''resolve'' the vexed Ayodhya issue ''within 24 hours'' if the court allowed him.

''Is he (Adityanath) is above the supreme court....such remarks are only to sooth the ruffled feathers of the saints, who are angry with the BJP,'' Rajbhar said.