Om Prakash Rajbhar challenges Akhilesh Yadav to safeguard party MPs while Swami Prasad Maurya explores a third front with smaller outfits ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls.
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister and BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya has said the Samajwadi Party is on the verge of a split.
BJP ally and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, who started off the implosion buzz, has dared Akhilesh Yadav to “protect his MPs”.
Seen in conjuction with the collapse of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the rebellion in Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of the Shiv Sena, the split claims on the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, where Assembly elections are due next year, appear part of a concerted BJP attempt.
This would systematically dismantle the Opposition and ensure broadening of the ruling party’s earlier stated objective of a “Congress-mukt (free) Bharat”.
Maurya told reporters in Kanpur on Wednesday evening:
“There are 25-26 Samajwadi MPs who are ready to form a separate group. We are not behind this.
Their MPs are unhappy with their party and are disillusioned as their future is dark.”
The SP has 37 Lok Sabha MPs and 4 Rajya Sabha MPs.
While the rebel Trinamool MPs have applied for a merger with a little-known party, the Sena (UBT) MPs have sought to join the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena that is part of the NDA government in Maharashtra.
Maurya’s comments suggest a similar model may have been set in motion in Uttar Pradesh to break the largest Opposition party in the state.
“Team Saifai may suffer a jolt soon,” Maurya said, referring to the stronghold of the SP’s first family.
“We are proud of Hindu unity and are getting ready to form a government in the state (for the third consecutive time) in 2027,” he added, giving a communal colour to his claims.
SP president Akhilesh, his uncles and party general secretaries Ram Gopal Yadav and Shivpal Yadav, and four Lok Sabha members from the family trace their roots to Saifai village in Etawah district.
The BJP accuses the SP of promoting caste and dynasty politics, and appeasing minorities. The SP traditionally counts Yadavs and Muslims as its core voters.
Rajbhar, whose Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party is an ally of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, had claimed before the media on Wednesday that Ram Gopal had submitted a letter of support to Union home minister Amit Shah.
“The SP is on the verge of a split. Forget the TMC in Bengal and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, SP leaders are all set to join the BJP,” Rajbhar had added.
Later, he claimed that a Brahmin Samajwadi MP from Ballia would lead the SP’s “rebel faction”. Although Rajbhar did not name anyone, he appeared to be referring to Samajwadi MP Sanatan Pandey.
After Akhilesh called him a “rumour-mongering monster” and asserted that the SP was as strong and intact as ever, Rajbhar posted on X on Thursday:
“Everyone has been asking since yesterday: is a split imminent in the SP? Well, listen to this! A son of Uttar Pradesh’s ‘rebel land’ will lead the faction of dissident SP MPs.”
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