SBSP -- BJP'S partner in UP -- to go it alone

Lucknow, April 15 (INS) The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) said on Monday that it will go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"We will field 25 candidates and contest on our own. We have waited long enough for the BJP and we are going ahead alone," said UP minister and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar on Monday.

Rajbhar had walked into Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's official residence at 3 a.m on Sunday with his resignation letter, but was turned back since the chief minister was sleeping.

Rajbhar said if the BJP wanted to remove him from the council of ministers, it could do so.

Sources said that the BJP was willing to give one seat to SBSP on the condition that it should be contested on the BJP symbol. The SBSP, which represents the Rajbhar community, had won four seats in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The relationship between BJP and SBSP has been rather tumultuous with the SBSP leveling allegations against the Adityanath government.

--IANS

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