The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath on Monday recommended Governor Ram Naik to sack Om Prakash Rajbhar with immediate effect from his Cabinet.
Mr. Rajbhar holds the portfolio of Backward Classes in Yogi Adityanath’s government.
This has come a day after Mr. Rajbhar, an ally of the BJP who has turned rebel, predicted that the party would fare poorly in Uttar Pradesh. On May 19, the last voting day, Mr. Rajbhar had predicted that the SP-BSP alliance would win a large number of seats and the BJP would suffer heavy losses, also because of his rebellion.
Mr. Rajbhar has been on a warpath against the BJP after it had denied him a ticket on his own symbol. He said that the BJP was responsible for its own losses as it did not take along its ally.
Mr. Rajbhar, the president of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, suggested that the BJP would lose primarily due to his rebellion.
He said that by not giving them one seat, the BJP has damaged itself on 50. Rajbhar had been demanding the Ghosi seat for himself.
The BJP wanted him to contest on its symbol.
His party fielded over 40 candidates in the elections. Most of them were from the OBC community including his own caste Rajbhars, and they even supported the Congress on some seats.
After months of acrimony with the BJP largely over his demand of sub-categorisation of the OBC quota, Mr. Rajbhar had decided to go solo. He said that he would continue to build his party with full force for the 2022 Assembly elections.
Governor Ram Naik accepted the recommendation and relieved Mr. Rajbhar from his post of the Backward Class Welfare Minister.
Mr. Rajbhar got sacked from the government, a day after voting for the last phase.
The action against Mr. Rajbhar has also come after he was caught on camera at a public meeting in Ghazipur, just days before voting, hurling abuses at the BJP and also asking his workers to thrash the BJP workers if they attempted to spread any misinformation about his party.
A BJP worker had filed a police complaint against Mr. Rajbhar, following which an FIR was lodged.
It is expected that the Yogi Adityanath will sack other colleagues as well who had got plum posts in the State government just before polls when the Bhartiya Janta Party had attempted to appease its disgruntled ally.
Sharad Narang
Sharad is one among the oldest contributors of BO Herald with a particularly unique perspective with regards to Politics events. He aims to empower the readers with delivery of apt factual analysis of Politics news pieces from India.
