Trouble brews for BJP in Uttar Pradesh as MP revolts

Lucknow: As the countdown for Lok Sabha election begins, trouble is brewing in the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP MP Savitri Bai Phule has fired a salvo against the Modi government and has accused party leaders of “fiddling with the Constitution”.

The saffron MP, while talking to a select group of journalists here, alleged that the BJP was toying with the idea of ending reservation.

“I will be holding a protest rally next month on this issue under the banner of ‘Namo Budhai Janseva Samiti’. The rally will focus on issues relating to OBCs, minorities, SCs and STs,” she said.

“Sometimes it is said that we need to change the Constitution and sometimes it is said that the reservation policy must end. If the Constitution and the reservation policy is not safe, how can the rights of the deprived sections of society be protected?” the BJP MP said.

Ms Phule, who represents the Bahraich Lok Sabha seat in Parliament, made it clear that she will not back off from the fight for reservation and may even join hands with other political parties or individual who support her stand.

She further alleged that Central government’s policies have given a big jolt to the welfare and interests of SC/ST and OBC people.

The UP BJP, however, has refused to react to the MP’s allegations. On a day when Ms Phule virtually revolted against her party leadership, UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar also accused the state government of neglecting the interests of OBCs and dalits.

Mr Rajbhar, who had apparently been pacified by BJP president Amit Shah when he met the latter in Delhi on the eve of Rajya Sabha polls, is back to spewing venom against the Yogi government.

“I am a lion, not a dog. I am not afraid of anyone. I strongly disapprove of the manner in which raids were conducted at the house of our MLAs who had cross voted in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections,” he told reporters.

The minister, who has already alleged that corruption has increased manifold in the Yogi regime, further said that OBCs and dalits were being neglected and the results of Lok Sabha by-elections prove that people are unhappy with the Yogi government.