Om Prakash Rajbhar

Om Prakash Rajbhar
Om Prakash Rajbhar
Chairman of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 27 October 2002
Preceded by	Position established
Cabinet Minister; Government of Uttar Pradesh
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 05 March 2024
Ministry&Departments	Panchayati Raj; Minority Welfare; Haj & Wakf;
Chief Minister	Yogi Adityanath
Preceded by	Yogi Adityanath; & ; Dharmpal Singh
Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 11 March 2017
Preceded by	Saiyyada Shadab Fatima
Constituency	Zahoorabad
Cabinet Minister; Government of Uttar Pradesh
	In office; 19 March 2017 – 20 May 2019
Ministry&Departments	Backward classes welfare; Disabled people development.;
Chief Minister	Yogi Adityanath
Succeeded by	Anil Rajbhar
Personal details
Born	15 September 1962 (age 62); Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Political party	Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party
Spouse	Taramani (m. 1979)
Children	4
Residence(s)	Zahoorabad, Uttar Pradesh
Profession	Politician, agriculturalist

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.^[2]

Personal life

Rajbhar was born on 15 September 1962 to Sannu Rajbhar in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. 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.^[1]^[3]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Rajbhar is a member of the 18th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. Since 2017, he has represented the Zahoorabad and is a member of the SBSP.^[1]

On 19 March 2017, Rajbhar became a cabinet minister 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 due to anti-alliance activities.^[4]^[5]

In October 2021, Rajbhar announced that his party will form an alliance with Samajwadi Party for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.^[6]

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.^[7]^[8]^[9]

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 in the presence of Yogi Adityanath.^[10]

Views

In a 2022 interview with The Wire, Rajbhar said he is not a Hindu, and will not join NDA. He questioned whether the construction of the Ram Mandir would get the poor and backward children educated. He also asked BJP to focus more on schools and education rather than mandirs.^[11]

Controversy

In 2023, when asked to make a comment on the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 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".^[12] Notably, Chandrayaan-3's flight to the Moon was unmanned, and there was no plan for it to return to the Earth.^[13]

Posts held

#	From	To	Position
1	2017	2019	Minister of backward welfare
2	2017	2022	Member, 17th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh
3	2022	Incumbent	Member, 18th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh