PTI, LUCKNOW: Striking out at the Yogi Adityanath government, NDA ally SBSP today raised a fresh banner of revolt, accusing the chief minister of not following “coalition dharma” and “ignoring” the party.
“I will have detailed discussions with BJP president Amit Shah on various issues when he visits Lucknow on April 10 and then decide my party’s course of action,” SBSP leader and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar told reporters here.
He also said the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) would rethink about the alliance, if Shah did not agree on the issues raised by the party.
Seeking to downplay Rajbhar’s outburst, BJP spokesman Rakesh Tripathi said, “The BJP is duly discharging its coalition dharma in Uttar Pradesh.”
“Whatever is being said by Rajbhar is simply a political stunt by him to hog the headlines. He is raising questions on the bureacracy, but certainly not on the leadership. The leadership is honest,” he said.
“The BJP firmly believes in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas’. Whatever shortcomings are highlighted by Rajbhar, they are being addressed and corrective action is also being taken. It will be better if he raises these issues during Cabinet meetings,” the BJP spokesman said.
Rajbhar had left the saffron party days before the Rajya Sabha biennial elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and had threatened that his four MLAs would boycott the voting.
The SBSP has four MLAs in the 403-member in the UP Assembly, where the BJP and its allies have a majority of 324 lawmakers.
Attacking the UP chief minister, Rajbhar said, “Why are MPs and MLAs angry with the (Yogi Adityanath) government? Why are they going to Delhi to convey their grievances? Why are the MLAs angry and are sitting on protests?”
On the recent appointments made in the state secondary education board, he said, “The BJP’s slogan of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas’ is not being implemented in letter and spirit as relatives of senior BJP leaders from upper castes have been appointed.”
“Now, tell me where will the people from backward castes and scheduled castes go…If I speak, then people start feeling bad,” Rajbhar said.
