SBSP, an NDA ally, plans tocontest 29 seats in Bihar polls

Lucknow: Suhaildev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, an ally of BJP in UP, on Saturday asserted that his party plans to contest more than two dozen seats in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year.
"We have done our spadework on nearly 29 seats of Bihar," asserted Rajbhar while speaking to TOI on Saturday. A minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, Rajbhar maintained that he would surely demand BJP a "fair share" of seats to contest in Bihar where his party has been active for the past few years.
Sources said SBSP has zeroed down on assembly seats across 28 districts including Sasaram, West Champaran, Nawada, Nalanda, Gaya, Aurangabad and Bettiah. "We have been holding rallies to ramp up public support for the past many months," Rajbhar said. In past three months, SBSP organised nearly 24 rallies. The last rally was organised in Purnia on Jan 30. He said his party would be organising a rally in Sitamarhi on Mar 7 to celebrate its 22nd foundation day.
Rajbhar's stand underscored his fresh bargaining position vis-a-vis BJP which is seemingly keen to have only Nitish Kumar led JD(U), Chirag Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Jitan Manjhi led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha, on board.
The SBSP chief maintained that his party has been working overtime to build support and help the NDA thwart opposition bid to regain its foothold in Bihar. Rajbhar categorically junked speculation that he may contest elections independently if not accommodated "properly" in the NDA. "We are bound by the alliance dharma and would abide by it. Nevertheless, we would do our bit to build our base independently," he said.
Experts said that the SBSP has been drawing its poll plan in Bihar for the past two years as part of a strategy to make its political presence outside Uttar Pradesh. Rajbhar and his two sons – Arvind and Arun – have been organising rallies in different districts to ratchet up public support.
Rajbhar has been eyeing Bihar as a promising poll ground to ramp up his trademark ‘samajik nyay' (social justice) narrative while demanding sub-categorization of OBCs in Uttar Pradesh into three groups — based on their socio-economic status — and accordingly split the 27% reservation given to them. This, experts said, aligned with caste-based survey which was conducted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar in 2022-23.