Akhilesh Yadav does not allow anyone from backward classes to be leaders: OP Rabhar

Ballia: SBSP chief and Uttar Pradesh's Panchayati Raj Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar on Friday hit out at Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, accusing him of “betraying” leaders from the backward classes, Dalits and minorities.

Rajbhar, whose party is part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, said Yadav’s allies are quitting the opposition alliance as he does not want leaders from the backward communities to rise.

"Akhilesh ji does not want to take anyone along. He does not want to allow any person from backward class, Dalit community or minority community to become a leader," the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief said while speaking to reporters at his party's office in Rasra here.

"Be it Jayant Chaudhary, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Dara Singh Chauhan, Swami Prasad Maurya (all SP leaders or leaders of parties part of its alliance), everyone is saying the same thing. The SP leaders are betraying the backward class, Dalit community and Muslim class. This is the reason why everyone is leaving him (Akhilesh Yadav)," said Rajbhar.

On Apna Dal (Kameravadi) not being given any Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh under the INDIA bloc, Rajbhar said that if the leaders of Apna Dal (K) want to join the NDA, then they are welcome.

Apna Dal (K) has expressed displeasure over not being given a single seat under the INDIA bloc after Yadav said that "the alliance between Apna Dal (K) and the Samajwadi Party was for the 2022 Assembly polls and not the 2024 elections." Rajbhar's party had contested the 2022 assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and won six seats. Later however, he parted ways with the SP. Rajbhar who had contested the 2017 assembly election in UP with the BJP returned to the NDA fold and was sworn in as a minister recently.

Asked about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case, Rajbhar said, “The country’s money has been misused. Action is being taken against Kejriwal only after he was found guilty in the investigation," he said.

The ED is an autonomous agency and it is doing its work, he added.