OP Rajbhar's SBSP To Go It Alone In Bihar, To Contest From 153 Seats

Patna: The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Uttar Pradesh, has decided to enter the fray in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. The party's candidates will contest from up to 153 seats.

The move comes a day after the NDA announced sharing of seats among its partners, without considering the SBSP's wish to try its luck once again in Bihar. It had contested on five seats in the state in 2020 without tasting any success.

With this the SBSP has joined the queue of parties like the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, and Bhim Army, which are based in other states but are going to contest Bihar polls for 243 seats that would be held in two phases on November 6 and 11. The results would be out on November 14.

“We tried with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to be a part of the alliance in Bihar and contest the Assembly elections on even two or four seats. But we were unsuccessful. People who donated Rs 10, 20 or 50 to help us organise huge rallies (in Bihar) are now saying that they trusted us, but we are being constantly betrayed. They are asking us to fight the polls and promising to vote for our candidates,” SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar told reporters.

Rajbhar added his supporters had asserted that “everybody will feel our power only when we unite, else hey will keep underestimating us. Adhering to the wishes of the leaders, people and supporters of Bihar we have started filing the nominations from today (Monday). We were working in 153 Assembly constituencies and will try to contest them. Let us see how far we succeed in this.”

The SBSP chief, who is also the panchayati raj minister in Uttar Pradesh, revealed that he has dispatched 22 leaders from Uttar Pradesh to different districts of Bihar. "They will return after getting the nominations filed by our candidates," he said.

Rajbhar pointed out that 15 candidates of his party filed their nomination papers for different seats in the state on Monday. He asserted that Bihar BJP leaders gave incorrect inputs to their central leaders about his party.

“When we had filed nomination papers for bypolls for Tarari and Ramgarh Assembly seats, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal, Bihar BJP in-charge Vinod Tawde, and BJP national president JP Nadda told us that we will contest polls together in the coming days. They conveniently forgot it. Anyway, we are independent and we are talking to a few parties to create a separate front and contest Bihar polls,” Rajbhar added.

The SBSP is expected to release the entire list of candidates contesting the Bihar polls before the media in Patna on Tuesday. It has been expanding its organisational network in the state for a long time now and was demanding NDA seats on its basis. The party had been in touch with top leadership of the BJP for the past several months, apprising them in advance about their wish to contest the Bihar Assembly elections. What miffed it more was that the saffron party kept it waiting till the last moment.

Rajbhar revealed that the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had offered five seats to his party, which it rejected. He also clarified that the SBSP will stay a part of the NDA in Uttar Pradesh.

However, his foray into Bihar polls will give an additional twist to what is developing into a three and four-cornered fight between the NDA, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), and AIMIM.

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