Who OP Rajbhar is and what is the stature of his party?
Reportedly the cabinet was expanded in the yogi government of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. This much-awaited expansion was discussed since october last year. On Tuesday, governor Anandiben patel administered the oath of office and secrecy to the MLAs at raj bhavan in the presence of chief minister yogi Adityanath and others. In the same sequence, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj party leader Om Prakash Rajbhar also took oath. Rajbhar was removed from his cabinet by the Yohi government in the year 2019 after the lok sabha elections. Rajbhar was the minister of Backward Class Welfare and Disabled People's Welfare in the yogi government elected in 2017. However, in the 2022 assembly elections, Rajbhar was with Samajwadi party and Akhilesh Yadav. After the elections last year, he again joined the bharatiya janata party led national democratic alliance i.e. NDA.
Meanwhile bjp has three main allies in UP. Nishad party, Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party. BJP's relations with Apna Dal have always been good, but relations with SubhaSP were sometimes broken and sometimes improved. In Purvanchal, SubhaSP is dominating about 40 assembly seats. Rajbhar, who left SP last year and joined bjp, used to criticize the yogi government on many issues. He had even said that corruption has increased further in the bjp government.
If we look at the vote bank of Rajbhar caste, it has its influence on almost every seat in Purvanchal. Rajbhar caste vote bank has a good percentage in many districts of Purvanchal including Mau, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Deoria, Azamgarh, Ambedkarnagar, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur. On this basis, Rajbhar has come with BJP. SubhaSP has 6 MLAs in the 403-member assembly of UP. Rajbhar claims that the results come in the direction he stays. Recently, he had even said that if he does not get the throne, he will not celebrate Holi.