Yogi sacks Rajbhar for attacking BJP

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, May 20

A day after the polling for the Lok Sabha polls concluded, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today sacked SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar from the Cabinet for his outbursts against senior NDA partner BJP.

Governor Ram Naik accepted the recommendation by CM Yogi and relieved Rajbhar with immediate effect from his post of Backward Class Welfare and Divyangjan Empowerment Minister, an official spokesperson said here.

The CM also recommended to the Governor that seven other Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) members, including Om Prakash’s son Arvind Rajbhar, holding ministerial ranks in commissions be removed immediately. The SBSP has four MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha.

To maintain the caste balance, CM Yogi gave BJP MLA and Minister of State Anil Rajbhar the additional charge of the departments headed by the SBSP chief. 

Talking to reporters, Rajbhar welcomed the decision to dismiss him. “I welcome the decision, but I had just hoped that Adityanath should have shown the same quickness in dealing with issues that I had raised as a minister, including implementation of prohibition in the state and granting scholarships to poor children,” he said.

Challenging the BJP, Rajbhar said that from now onwards, his agenda would be to expose the BJP: “I will continue to consolidate my community and explain to them the manner in which the BJP cheated the OBCs and Dalits.”

Rajbhar represents a backward community, which approximately constitutes 20 per cent of the population of Purvanchal, the region which cast its vote on Sunday. He had not only fielded his independent candidates, but had openly defied the BJP in the final phase of the election, strategically siding with either the Congress or the ‘mahagathbandhan’ on a number of seats to trouble the BJP. 

Minister hits back, Calls govt Anti-OBC

SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has said the BJP never addressed issues raised by him and kept him waiting till the conclusion of the Lok Sabha election. “Clearly, Yogi Adityanath could have dismissed me even during elections when I had resigned on April 13. But he did not want to take risk of an OBC backlash. However, this is not the end of elections-there will be more elections in the future,” Rajbhar said.