Ghosi battle hots up as SBSP splinter group bats for SP
While the SP is defending the seat, BJP’s Dara Singh Chauhan too is defending Ghosi seat as he was SP MLA who resigned from here on July 15 to join the BJP
LUCKNOW The straight contest between the defending Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Ghosi bypolls is set to get more interesting after the Suheldev Swabhiman Party (SSP), claiming influence over the Rajbhar community, announced support for SP candidate Sudhakar Singh.
The SSP is a splinter group of BJP ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), and both call themselves parties of Rajbhars. With this, both candidates in the fray, Sudhakar Singh and Dara Singh Chauhan (backed by SBSP), have the support of Rajbhars-based parties.
Dara Singh Chauhan and Sudhakar Singh are one-time MLAs from Ghosi. Chauhan won the seat as SP candidate in 2022 UP assembly polls while Sudhakar Singh won it as SP candidate in 2012.
While the SP is defending the seat, BJP’s Dara Singh Chauhan too is defending the seat as he was SP MLA who resigned from the seat on July 15 to join the BJP after two days.
SSP general secretary Baliraj Rajbhar on Monday reached the camp office of SP candidate Sudhakar Singh and announced support for him. An SP leader from Mau, under which the Ghosi assembly seat falls, confirmed that while the SP was anyway winning the bypolls, it also received support of the SSP which will add to the party’s performance.
On August 18, SSP general secretary Manoj Rajbhar had accused SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and BJP candidate Dara Singh Chauhan of a conspiracy that led to the rejection of nomination papers of SSP candidate Arvind Rajbhar.
SSP is a splinter group of SBSP rebels that came into existence after the 2022 UP Assembly results when Rajbhar parted ways with the Samajwadi Party alliance.
“SSP leaders are a spent force. The split was orchestrated by Akhilesh Yadav,” said SBSP spokesperson Piyush Mishra.
Dara Singh Chauhan and the SBSP have a similar history since the run-up to the 2022 UP assembly polls. Chauhan was a minister in the Yogi government, but shortly before the 2022 polls, he resigned from the post and joined the SP. SBSP too was earlier a BJP ally but allied with the SP in 2022. Both went back to the BJP camp in July.
Chauhan is an OBC while Sudhakar Singh is a Thakur (upper caste). By fielding loyalist Sudhakar Singh, Akhilesh Yadav has attempted to try the ‘upper caste+PDA’ formula in the Ghosi bypolls. The SP has coined the new PDA formula – ‘Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (backwards, Dalits, minorities) for his party.
The battle for Ghosi looks unpredictable as the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which are part of the INDIA coalition of opposition parties along with the SP, now also have SSP support. On the other hand, the BJP has the support of the SBSP and the Nishad party on the Ghosi seat.