Opposition unity shatters in Uttar Pradesh forward of presidential polls

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The opposition unity acquired a giant jolt on Friday when Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal Yadav and SP ally OP Rajbhar, chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), arrived at UP CM Yogi Aditynath’s official residence to attend the dinner hosted by him in honour of NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Friday evening.

Murmu had arrived in Lucknow on Friday afternoon to satisfy the MLAs and muster help for her.

Moreover, in addition to the BJP and its allies together with Apna Dal (S) and NISHAD get together, Jansatta Dal chief Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya and BSP’s lone MLA Umashankar Singh had been additionally current within the dinner committing help to Murmu.

While Jansatta Dal has two MLAs, BSP chief Mayawati had already dedicated help of her lone MLA to Murmu a day after the announcement of her candidature by the NDA.

However, the presence of Shivpal Yadav and OP Rajbhar is being witnessed as a giant jolt to opposition unity within the state forward of the presidential elections due on July 18.

While Shivpal had received the Jaswantnagar Assembly seat on the SP ticket, Rajbhar’s SBSP had contested the Assembly elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, successful six seats. Significantly, each Shivpal and OP Rajbhar had been sulking for fairly a while and going public with their views in opposition to the SP management.

The instant flashpoint in SP-SBSP ties reached after Rajbhar was not invited to the assembly referred to as by Akhilesh Yadav to drum up help for the opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha who was in Lucknow on Thursday.

As per the extremely positioned sources, SP stored the SBSP chief ready whereas inviting Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhury to the assembly.

Meanwhile, a senior SP chief downplayed Rajbhar’s presence within the NDA camp saying that it was a lot anticipated because the SBSP chief had met the BJP leaders 4 days again and that was the rationale he was not invited to the assembly convened by the SP chief on Thursday.

However, the Friday growth could go a great distance in altering the flavour of UP politics forward of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections because the SP-led alliance appears to be on the rocks.