SBSP to go it alone for LS polls; announces 39 candidates for UP

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an ally of the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Tuesday announced it will go alone in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls in the state and released a list of 39 candidates.

Several round of talks were held with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for an understanding for the Lok Sabha elections but to no avail, hence we decided to field our own candidates, Minister for Backward Class Welfare and Divyangjan Empowerment in the Yogi Adityanath Government Om Prakash Rajbhar told newspersons here.

"BJP asked me to contest the Ghosi seat on 'kamal' (BJP) symbol which I declined," Rajbhar said.

"Be it Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Congress or BJP, none have given representation to the people belonging to our caste. For the honour of members of my backward and deprived people, the party today announced 39 candidates for the seats which go to polls in the fifth, sixth and seventh phases," he said.

The SBSP leader claimed that in the first phase of polling for the eight Lok Sabha seats in UP, held on April 11, his supporters had pressed the 'none of the above' (NOTA) button.

Rajbhar said his party will contest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lok Sabha seat Lucknow and in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's traditional stronghold Gorakhpur.

The SBSP president said he was ready to resign from the state cabinet and that his resignation was ready but no one was taking it.

When asked what he will do in case his resignation was not accepted, Rajbhar said as of now he is busy with the Lok Sabha polls and will be fielding his candidates against the BJP.

"As for the assembly polls, it is still a long time for (now)," he said.

Rajbhar claimed that in the 2017 assembly elections, which his party fought with the BJP, almost 125 seats were won because of the alliance.

"We wanted to contest the 2019 elections also in alliance with the BJP. They (BJP) struck an understanding with the Apna Dal, but did not give us a single seat," Rajbhar said.

Senior leaders of the BJP asked us to contest on 'kamal' symbol but our workers were against it, he said.

The SBSP will field candidates from Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Banda ,Fatehpur, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Kaiserganj, Shrawasti, Gonda, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Baansgaon, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machchlishahr, Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Mirzapur and Robertsganj.

The party has fielded Siddharth Rajbhar from Varansi, Babban Rajbhar from Lucknow and Radheyshyam Saithvar from Gorakhpur.