Amid reports of former minister Om Prakash Rajbhar cosying up with the ruling BJP, Uttar Pradesh minister Daya Shankar Singh on Tuesday said the SBSP president is ideologically close to the BJP.
Singh was speaking on the sidelines of a children's sports competition programme at the district headquarters.
"Rajbhar is an old ally of the BJP. He has been a minister in the BJP government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are taking his thinking forward," Singh said.
"Anything can happen in politics. There are no permanent friends and enemies in politics. The decision is taken according to time and circumstances," he added.
Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar is a strong backward leader with influence in eastern UP districts.
He had fought the 2017 assembly election in the state as a BJP candidate and was also a minister in the first Yogi Adityanath-led government before splitting and joining the SP-led alliance in the run-up to this year's assembly polls in which his party had won six seats.
Since BJP’s coming to power in the state again, Rajbhar has been said to be showing proximity to the ruling party.
Besides, he has been openly criticising the SP leadership, also advising its president Akhilesh Yadav to go among the people instead of doing politics from "air-conditioned rooms."
Earlier, UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak had called Rajbhar "a permanent friend" and a "leader of the masses."
Pathak and Rajbhar had shared the dais in Ballia in October for the inaugural of a private hospital.
During the ceremony, Rajbhar praised the Yogi Adityanath government, crediting him with the improvement of the state of government hospitals.
