The Uttar Pradesh government has accorded Y-category security to Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) Chief Om Prakash Rajbhar. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) suggested the move is a quid pro quo of the growing proximity between Rajbhar and BJP, the SBSP leadership described it a fruition of a long-standing demand which was supported by the SP.
In a letter addressed to the Additional Director General of Police (Security), Joint Secretary of Home Department Vinay Kumar Singh said, it has been decided to extend Y-category security to SBSP president, former cabinet minister, and Zahurabad MLA Om Prakash Rajbhar, provisionally.
Earlier, party spokesperson Arun Rajbhar confirmed that his father has been provided Y-category security.
The decision has come days after SBSP, an ally of the SP, voted for NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential polls. Mr. Rajbhar had attended a dinner hosted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in honour of Ms. Murmu. Recently, Mr. Rajbhar also met U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the party MLAs. SBSP has six MLAs in the U.P. Assembly.
Since the results of the Azamgarh and Rampur bypoll, Mr. Rajbhar has also been taking potshots at SP president Akhilesh Yadav for not campaigning and not coming out of air-conditioned rooms.
SP spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said the development might be a quid pro quo for Mr. Rajbhar’s growing proximity with the BJP but the party could not understand the basis of it.
“Politicians working for self-interest cannot do anything substantial for the people they represent. Getting Y-security would not solve the grievances of backward people that the SBSP represent. The BJP doesn’t work for the marginalised sections. Mr. Rajbhar parted ways with the BJP for not implementing the social justice committee report. It is still lying in the dustbin. Hence we fail to understand the growing proximity between the two,” Mr. Gandhi told The Hindu.
SBSP’s response
Responding to the charge, senior SBSP leader Sanjay Rajbhar said the workers of both the SBSP and the SP demanded enhanced security for the party president after he was attacked in Zahurabad during the election campaign for Assembly polls. “We submitted a memdorandum in this regard to all the district magistrates in the State. The decision to provide Y-category is an outcome of that demand,” Mr. Rajbhar told The Hindu.
A Y-category security protectee is provided with 11 security personnel, including two person security officers (PSOs).
