UP Minister calls BJP arrogant, power drunk

Lucknow: Coalition blues hit the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Monday as senior cabinet minister and Suhaildev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) President Om Prakash Rajbhar accused the BJP of "not respecting its alliance partners". Predicting bad days for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the minister alleged that the ruling party had "lost its mental balance in the wake of the brute majority handed over to it in the UP Assembly". The remarks came on a day when the BJP government completed one year in office and rolled out grand celebrations on the occasion. Rajbhar also created a flutter in political circles by announcing that his support for the BJP's Rajya Sabha nominees was still uncertain. He said his party could have got at least 30,000 votes for the BJP in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elections but he was not even asked to campaign. "The BJP's humiliating defeat in the by-elections is a result of its arrogance and reflects that within one year they have lost the trust of the people," Rajbhar told IANS on phone. He accused the BJP government of paying attention only to temples and doing nothing for the poor, backwards, Dalits and farmers. "A lot is being said, claimed and written but on the ground nothing is seen." The minister, whose party has four members in the UP Assembly, added: "For now we are with the NDA but the BJP is not following the coalition dharma." He also told media  that till BJP President Amit Shah speaks to him to settle the issues raised by him, his legislators will not participate in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls slated for March 23.