Om Prakash Rajbhar (born 15 September 1962) is an Indian politician and president of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP). He is a member of 18th Uttar Pradesh Assembly from Zahoorabad constituency of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Personal life

Rajbhar was born on 15 September 1962 to Sannu Rajbhar in

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

. He graduated from Baldev Degree College, Badagaon, Varanasi in 1983. Rajbhar married Taramani on 26 April 1979, with whom he has two sons and two daughters. He is an agriculturalist by profession and a resident of Zahoorabad.

Political career

Prior to establishing a separate political Party Omprakash Rajbhar was in Bahujan Samaj Party. He was District President of Varanasi in BSP. He has contested Assembly election two times from Kolsala Vidhan Sabha constituency, once in 1991 and again in 1996. In 1991 as BSP candidate Omprakash secured 18,421 votes and stood on third position. In 1996 as BSP candidate he secured 32,777 votes and stood on third position. In 2002 Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh he could not succeed to secure BSP ticket, thereafter he got separated from BSP. Rajbhar is a member of the 18th Legislative Assembly of

. Since 2017, he has represented the Zahoorabad and is a member of the SBSP. On 19 March 2017, Rajbhar became a

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

in the Yogi Adityanath ministry as the minister of the Department of Backward Classes Welfare and the Department of Disabled People development. On 20 May 2019, Rajbhar was sacked from Cabinet of

Yogi Adityanath Yogi Adityanath (born Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht; 5 June 1972) is an Indian Hindu monk and politician. He is currently serving as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 19 March 2017, became the first to hold the office for two consecutive ter ...

due to anti-alliance activities. In October 2021, Rajbhar announced that his party will form an alliance with

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; ) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India. It was founded on 4 October 1992 by former Janata Dal politician Mulayam Singh Yadav and is headquartered in New Delhi. It is the third-largest political party in ...

for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. In 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election working in alliance with SP, SBSP contested 17 seats in UP and won 6 seats with party leader Om Prakash Rajbhar in Uttar Pradesh. In March 2024, Om Prakash Rajbhar was one of the four ministers who was inducted into state Cabinet, sworn-in at the Raj Bhavan by Governor

Anandiben Patel Anandiben Mafatbhai Patel (born 21 November 1941) is an Indian politician serving as the 20th and current governor of Uttar Pradesh since 2019. She also served as the 17th governor of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 to 2021 and as Governor of Chha ...

in the presence of

Views

In a 2022 interview with ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'', Rajbhar said he is not a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, and will not join NDA. He questioned whether the construction of the

Ram Mandir The Ram Mandir (ISO 15919, ISO: , ), also known as Shri Ramlalla Mandir, is a partially constructed Hindu temple, Hindu temple complex in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. Many Hindus believe that it is located at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, t ...

would get the poor and backward children educated. He also asked BJP to focus more on schools and education rather than

mandirs A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...

Controversy

In 2023, when asked to make a comment on the soft landing of

Chandrayaan-3 Chandrayaan-3 ( ) is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of Exploration of the Moon, lunar-exploration missions developed by the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission consists of a Chandrayaan-2#Vikra ...

on the Moon, he said, "I thank Indian scientists for their hard work and research. I congratulate them on their achievement with Chandrayaan-3. Once they safely return to Earth tomorrow, the entire country should welcome them". Notably, Chandrayaan-3's flight to the Moon was unmanned, and there was no plan for it to return to the Earth.

Posts held

References