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Terming disenchantment of OBCs as the reason behind the BJP’s defeat in the Kairana by-elections, Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said the backward classes were unhappy with the party after Keshav Prasad Maurya was not made the chief minister. “The fact that Yogi Adityanath had been chosen instead of Keshav Maurya has angered many of the voters from the backward class”, added Rajbhar
Om Prakash Rajbhar has claimed that the voters from the Other Backward Class voted for the BJP-SPSP alliance in the State Assembly polls in the hope that Keshav Maurya would be made the Chief Minister.
The BJP contested assembly polls with Keshav Prasad Maurya as its face but later Yogi Adityanath was made chief minister. Backwards supported the BJP in the hope that Maurya will become CM. The result of this anger reflected in the defeat of the BJP in the by-polls.Om Prakash Rajbhar, Cabinet Minister in UP and Head of SPSP Party.
Asked whether Yogi Adityanath is responsible for the defeat inthe Kairana by-polls, he said,
The government is responsible. The BJP should introspect on thereasons behind its defeat. It’s up to the BJP as to who will be made the CM. But If I am liked by all but Ia am not made the Chief Minister, will I be happy?Om Prakash Rajbhar, Cabinet Minister in UP and Head of SPSP Party.
The BJP lost both Kairana and Noorpur seats in the recent by-polls. Tabassum Hasan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal won the Kairana seat by a margin of 44,618 votes, while Naeemul Hasan of the SP bagged the Noorpur Assembly seat by 5,662 votes. The winning RLD candidate in Kairana was backed by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. In Noorpur, the main opposition parties supported the SP nominee. Against this united opposition, the BJP’s all-out effort to stop a chain of losses in bypolls in the state since 2014 proved futile even though Chief Minister Adityanath led from the front.
With Inputs from PTI.
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