Shivpur (Uttar Pradesh): At the Havelia Tiraha crossing in Sarnath, the empty flagpole in front of the statue of Suheldev, a legendary 11th century king venerated by the Rajbhars, has a very revealing political tale to tell, one linked to a critical factor in the elections in eastern Uttar Pradesh – the battle for the “Rajbhar vote”.
When the statue was first inaugurated in 2007 by Sukhdev Rajbhar, a five-time MLA in Mayawati’s government, the flag that flew on the flagpole was yellow, a colour sacred to the Rajbhars, which was believed to be the colour of Raja Suheldev’s turban.
The event went unnoticed by the media, and was seemingly of importance only to the Rajbhar community who are present in strength in its vicinity and in neighbouring districts. At the time, few in Uttar Pradesh, let alone the country had heard or knew much of either Suheldev or the Rajbhars, categorised as a most backward class (MBC).
Just a few years earlier, in 2002, Om Prakash Rajbhar, a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, had formed a political party named after the king – the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), with a chharhi (stick) as its political symbol and yellow its official colour.
The SBSP was the first real political articulation of an MBC – the marginalised, most backward castes in the OBC category. Rajbhars number around 2-3% of UP’s population but, concentrated in the eastern belt, they will have a significant impact on close to a hundred seats in the last three phases.
Till 2017, the SBSP lost every seat it contested.
In the 2007 assembly elections, only three of the 97 SBSP candidates were able to save their deposits, in 2012 it lost all the 52 seats it contested and in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it lost in all 13 seats, including Salempur in Deoria district, Rajbhar’s own constituency. Despite these apparent failures, the SBSP managed to build a political consciousness around the Rajbhar caste identity and push the community’s demand for SC status.
Then in 2016, the flag at the Suheldev statue in Tiraha changed colour from yellow to a distinct saffron. The change in colour corresponded to a much publicised shift in politics – an alliance between the SBSP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For the BJP, the alliance fit neatly into its now well-documented strategy of combining Hindutva with the consolidation of smaller MBC groups, exploiting their rift with the dominant caste groups in their villages, mostly Yadavs.
With the BJP-SBSP alliance in 2016, the Suheldev changed colour, from yellow to saffron. Photo: Radhika Bordia
For the BJP, the Raja Suheldev story was made to order, of a cow-protecting king who could be appropriated into their pantheon of Hindu rulers who took on Muslim invaders. They emphasise the story of his battle with Salar Masud, or Ghazi Miyan, who is described as a nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni. Other local narratives hail Ghazi Miyan as a cow protector and his shrine in Bahraich is visited by both Hindus and Muslims but these are eroding in the face of a politics that has sought to pit Raja Suheldev and his followers, the Rajbhars, against the Muslims.
In February 2016, in the lead up to the last elections, home minister Amit Shah unveiled a statue of Suheldev in Bahraich and another in the Ambedkar Park constructed by Mayawati in Lucknow. Images of Suheldev were put up in offices, including the BJP headquarters, and a superfast train named after the king. In the 2017 assembly elections, the SBSP won four seats and Om Prakash Rajbhar was made a minister in the government, though his son Arvind Rajbhar lost his seat Bansdih in Ballia.
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The SBSP-BJP alliance also helped pull in support for Anil Rajbhar, the BJP candidate from Shivpur, in Varanasi district. While filming there, in the lead up to the 2017 elections, we found even those opposed to the BJP ideology, reaching across party lines to support Anil Rajbhar. He won with a margin of more than 54,000 votes and was made a minister in the Adityanath cabinet.
Despite the electoral success, the SBSP-BJP alliance did not run smoothly. One recurring cause of conflict was Anil, who the BJP was nurturing as a leader of the Rajbhars in his own right. In January 2019, Om Prakash Rajbhar broke his alliance with the BJP, citing its failure to deliver on the promise to implement the Social Justice Committee Report, which was aimed to split the 27% reservations for the OBCs into three categories – backward, more backward and most backward. He attacked the BJP for being an essentially upper caste party which used smaller caste parties for electoral gains.
In October 2021, Om Prakash Rajbhar sealed a pre-electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party. It signaled a dramatic shift in the politics of caste that dominates the political landscape of the state. For the BJP, who had tried hard to keep the SBSP leader within its fold, the loss was crucial; for the Samajwadi Party, this alliance with an MBC party was an important first.
As a result, five years after his 2017 victory, Anil Rajbhar is fighting the Shivpur seat against Om Prakash Rajbhar’s son Arvind. In some measure what happens in Shivpur will be the real test of how significant this reshaping of alliances has been.
Anil Rajbhar, BJP candidate from Shivpur constituency, Varanasi district. Photo: Radhika Bordia
Ground report
“Jai Akhilesh, Jai Om Prakash Rajbhar, Jai Mother Teresa,” shouts Sandeep Yadav, wearing the red colours and hat of the Samajwadi Party. The “Jai Mother Teresa” is, he explains, a reference to Mamata Banerjee “as she is from Bengal and has done social service for the country by defeating Modi”.
Next to him, Chandan Rajbhar in the yellow of the SBSP, repeats the slogan. He tells me, referring to the party symbol, “This time the chharhi will beat all other political rivals.”
Wearing the colours of the SP-SBSP alliance, Sandeep Yadav and Chandan Rajbhar, supporters of “Akhilesh bhaiya” and “Om Prakash Rajbharji”. Photo: Radhika Bordia
The two of them run a kiosk selling eggs in the Salarpur village of Shivpur constituency. “This is my shop, he is my helper, we are partners at work and now partners in politics,” says Sandeep. Chandan launches into an angry tirade against BJP’s Anil Rajbhar, “Sure, he’s a Rajbhar but what has he done for the community? He’s only served the BJP’s agenda. I want to ask him if he thinks a temple in Ayodhya will get Rajbhar youth jobs.”
Three other men come up to endorse Sandeep and Chandan’s views. One of them, in his mid-20s, speaks up, “My name is also Anil Rajbhar but my vote will go to Arvind Rajbhar. My father says Om Prakash Rajbhar is the reason our community is known across the country and all from pichri jaatis (backward castes) must unite behind him. This time he’s with Akhilesh, so we will vote for the alliance.” The other two nod in agreement. They say they had voted for the BJP in 2017.
The conversation is now drawing a crowd. Two men stop to voice their views. One of them, Shiv Rajbhar, a daily wage worker, points to Sandeep’s kiosk and says, “This is an unequal alliance. Look at the kiosk, the owner is a Yadav and the helper, a Rajbhar. I would have voted for Om Prakash’s son if his party was with the BJP but not when he has joined a Yadav party.” His friend who works as a mechanic pipes in to say, “The Yadavs have always used the lathi against the Rajbhars so why would Om Prakash want to add his chharhi to it?”
At a small school run from his residence in Raghunathpur, Shiv Murat Rajbhar, also known as Masterji, summons up an old village saying, “Bharey ka goji Ahir bardash kar paya aur Ahirey ka goji bhar” (The Ahir can withstand the Bhar’s stick and the Bhar can handle the Ahir’s rod). He says this is reflective of the similar status that the Yadavs and Rajbhars once shared but over time “the Yadavs gained land, positions in the administration and political status. They would often assert this power over the Rajbhars.”
The widening rift
The BJP is trying its own methods to widen this rift. We were told of BJP workers who had been cautioning the Rajbhars about the dangers posed by the Nag Nathaiya (dancer on the snake) if the alliance came to power. This politically expedient use of Hindu mythology does not need any decoding in this region. Nag Nathaiya is one of the names for Krishna, who as a child dived into the Ganga to retrieve a ball and emerged from the waters, dancing on the hood of the serpent Kalia. The Yadavs trace their descent from Krishna but the Rajbhars see themselves as Nagvanshis, descendants of the Serpent King Kalia.
The mythological references play out on the ground where it is easy to find instances of Yadav-Rajbhar clashes. In Baraipur, Sarnath, which falls in the Varanasi North constituency, the Rajbhars lay claim to a jheel (water body) which they say was illegally captured by the administration when the Samajwadi Party was in power. Radha Devi Rajbhar, a prominent social activist in the local community, led an agitation to regain the community’s rights over the jheel. “I had gone to the police and the administration but they behaved badly,” she says, adding that Anil Rajbhar was quick to come to her aid, which is why she’s working to ensure the Rajbhars in her area vote for the BJP.
Radha Devi, social activist, who has been campaigning for BJP’s Anil Rajbhar. Photo: Radhika Bordia
The reality on the ground and the subversion of mythology feed into each other. Shiv Murat Rajbhar adds, “While the Yadav’s clout and oppression of the Rajbhars cannot be denied, Om Prakash Rajbhar’s previous alliance with the BJP were the years in which this existing antagonism was deliberately worked on and worsened.”
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His son Rahul Rajbhar says that this period saw a spread of the Hindtuva ideology among many Rajbhars, especially in urban areas. Rahul himself has stayed away from both the BJP and the SBSP, joining the Congress in January 2020. He says, “Caste identity is critical but it has to be part of a larger vision. I felt that the Congress was trying to make space for people like myself, from backward communities who want to lead the change.” As the party’s state secretary and Ghazipur district in-charge, he has managed to set up a robust grassroot cadre of workers and is looking to the future.
When we spoke to Anil Rajbhar as he was campaigning in Salarpur village, he picked up the theme of his opponent, letting his personal ambitions get in the way of the interests of the community. “If Om Prakash Rajbhar, or for that matter, Swami Prasad Maurya, truly cared for pichri jaatis (backward castes) like ours, they would never have rejected the BJP which has Keshav Maurya, a backward leader as deputy chief minister. No party has done that.” Turning to a group of villagers, he asked “how many Rajbhars has Om Prakash given tickets to apart from himself and his son,” and then signalled a zero with his fingers.
Arvind Rajbhar also alleged that a lack of people’s issues has reduced the BJP to personal attacks. The SBSP is already a Rajbhar party, he said, and thus it felt the need to widen its base and gave tickets to those from other communities while its ally, the Samajwadi Party, has given two tickets to Rajbhars.
“Look at how the BJP treats the marginalised. It isn’t just the Rajbhars, even the Mauryas, Chauhans and other backward leaders have left him. And those who are left like Keshavji, they’ve been put on a stool.” He was referring to a viral image of deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya seated on a stool flanked by Adityanath and BJP leader Dinesh Sharma seated on chairs. Both Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan broke their alliance with the BJP in January 2022, just before the elections.
One of the images on Twitter, purportedly showing Maurya sitting on a stool, while Adityanath and Dinesh Sharma are on chairs with handles. Photo: Twitter
Bala Lakhinder Rajbhar, who heads the Samajwadi Party’s backward cell, says the party is confident that the alliance will bridge the distance between the Yadavs and the Rajbhars. The Yadavs, he says, have endorsed each of the 17 SBSP candidates. His claims are borne out on the ground, especially in the rural areas, with the Yadavs voicing their support for the alliance, irrespective of whoever the candidate is.
But the split in the Rajbhar vote is what is making the going difficult for Arvind Rajbhar, especially since Shivpur’s proximity to Varanasi means Modi’s personal influence also resonates here. His father, and the party chief, is himself locked in a tough battle in Zahoorabad against a formidable BSP candidate, Shadab Fatima.
Contests such as this are reminder enough that through this region the BSP cannot be dismissed. “You have come to find out who the Rajbhars will vote for but do note that we are going to vote for the elephant,” says Mallu Ram, a Jatav BSP worker, at a roadside tea shop in Chirai Gaon in Shivpur. At the BSP office in Salarpur village, Rakesh Maurya tells us that the Dalit vote is firmly behind them, “There are 55,000 Jatav votes in this constituency, they are going to vote for my brother Ravi Maurya, not Om Prakash Rajbhar or the BJP. While everyone is focused on the Rajbhars it is this vote which will be decisive.”
The BSP hold cannot be underestimated in this region and smaller parties will chip votes away, but despite Mallu Ram’s claims, it is the Rajbhars and their vote holds the key not just to Shivpur and Zahoorabad, but also in the other constituencies of Ghazipur and Ballia. For Arvind Rajbhar, the contest with Anil goes to the heart of why his father founded the party. “This is a fight to reclaim Suheldev’s yellow from the saffron.”
