LUCKNOW: Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief and cabinet minister in the UP government, OP Rajbhar, made fresh claims on Saturday, saying that rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs were contemplating a separate group and backing the NDA on key legislation like the women's reservation bill.
However, the Samajwadi Party refuted Rajbhar’s fresh claims.
He has been making claims of an alleged imminent split in SP on the lines of Uddhav Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and TMC in West Bengal. Rajbhar has attempted to tie the situation directly to the women's reservation package, accusing the SP of initially standing against it and claiming this friction was triggering internal rebellion in the organisation.
The SBSP chief, while talking to media persons, said rebel SP MPs could part ways with the SP and form a separate group to support the NDA on key legislative issues, including the women’s reservation bill, which had fallen in the Lok Sabha during a special session in mid-April this year.
Rajbhar contended that those MPs would neither join the BJP nor any of its allies. They would rather form a separate group, similar to what happened in the case of the TMC.
Rajbhar alleged that sections within the opposition were keen to align with the NDA to push through pending legislation, including the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, fast-tracking reservation for women in legislatures.
Without naming any SP MP, Rajbhar further claimed that several of them were facing corruption allegations and could come under the radar of central probe agencies such as the CBI and ED.
Earlier in the day, Rajbhar took a swipe at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav over his reported visits to Mumbai. He said that SP had just two MLAs in Maharashtra, and a defection by them would not be a big issue, but it would be difficult to manage the SP fence-sitters here in UP.
Continuing with his claims, Rajbhar added that the SP leadership would not be able to succeed in moving its MPs to somewhere in Karnataka ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament.
Raising the alleged internal bickering in SP, Rajbhar referred to sulking Moradabad MP Ruchi Veera, who allegedly was not invited to a ‘PDA conference’ organised by the party.
Veera, who skipped the event, reportedly expressed displeasure over not being invited and her photograph being removed from hoardings.
The ruling BJP might have made it clear that it had nothing to do with the defections in any party. Rajbhar’s relentless claims about the alleged rebellion brewing up in the SP are seen as part of a broader NDA strategy to flag alleged instability within opposition ranks ahead of the 2027 UP Assembly polls.
However, senior SP leaders dismiss Rajbhar’s claims as mere speculations and a politically motivated buzz being created by him.