Amid intensified political mobilisation around the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh, BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is the latest to enter the race to woo them in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections.
Announcing a major outreach programme, the party has invited over 10,000 “prominent/ intellectual Brahmins” for its social harmony rally in Azamgarh on Sunday (February 22).
Over the past few months, Brahmin politics has been heating up in state — even unfolding within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It was on prominent display on Thursday when Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak felicitated 101 “Batuk Brahmins” (young Sanskrit scholars of the Vedas) at his residence in Lucknow, where he also termed the act of pulling a Brahmin’s choti — which allegedly happened during the Magh Mela — a “maha paap (a grave sin)”.
These developments come days after tensions flared between Swami Avimukteshwaranad Saraswati, the “Shankaracharya” of the Jyotirmath in Uttarakhand, and the BJP, as well as the Adityanath government.
In January, Swami Saraswati had held an 11-day protest in Prayagraj over being allegedly prevented by the local administration from taking a holy dip in the Triveni Sangam on Mauni Amavasya. He also attacked the ruling BJP government for “disrespecting Sanatan Dharma”, prompting reconciliatory efforts by the BJP, including Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, even as the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) came out in support of the seer.
SBSP’s mega outreach
According to the invitation extended by Arvind Rajbhar, National General Secretary of the party on February 19, SBSP chief and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar will showcase his political strength in Purvanchal (East UP) through a “Samajik Samrasta Maha Rally” on February 22 at the Janta Inter College ground in Azamgarh (Atrauli Assembly constituency).
The party claimed that the event will witness the participation of over 1 lakh people from across communities. Besides Brahmins, members of other social groups — including Kshatriyas, Chauhans, Nais, Nishads and several backward and marginalised communities — are expected to attend, with the party projecting the rally as a message of social harmony and wider social consolidation.
However, sources said, the presence of more than 10,000 prominent Brahmins has been highlighted as a key feature of the programme, underlining a focused attempt to strengthen engagement with the influential upper-caste community in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
To be sure, the SBSP’s primary vote base is the most backward OBC community in Purvanchal.
Thousands of members of the party’s youth wing, the Rashtriya Suheldev Sena, are also expected to participate to demonstrate organisational strength, discipline and mobilisation capacity.
The SBSP said the rally is aimed at expanding its social base while reinforcing the NDA’s political footprint in Purvanchal. Party leaders expressed confidence that the large-scale mobilisation would send a strong political message about the alliance’s ability to bring diverse social groups together ahead of the next electoral contest.
All prominent parties — BJP, Samajwadi Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — have been making efforts to draw support from various caste groups, especially Brahmins and Dalits, in the run-up to 2027.
Recently, anger among upper-caste communities over the now-stayed University Grants Commission’s (UGC) caste discrimination rules had sparked protests across the state. Controversy had also erupted over Manoj Bajpayee starrer ‘Ghooskhor Pandat’, with the Uttar Pradesh government swiftly ordering an FIR against the film’s director over the title which, it said, caused widespread anger among the Brahmin community.
