New Delhi: Can you spot the difference between a stick and a hockey stick? In real life, perhaps. But no so on the EVM machine, reckons Om Prakash Rajbhar, backward caste leader and a cabinet minister in the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.
After banking on the ‘stick’ for 22 years, Rajbhar, who runs the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), has changed the symbol of his party. On August 12, in a public meeting of his party in Lucknow, Rajbhar announced that the chabi (key) would replace the chhadi (stick) as the SBSP’s symbol.
Political parties, especially those who depend on the votes of the marginalised communities in rural pockets, often become synonymous with their election symbols and colours. Therefore, Rajbhar’s move to give up the ‘stick’ appears to be a drastic alteration in public messaging and brand projection.
But there is a background to this: the looming threat of the ‘hockey’.
Also read: Mutiny in Awadh: The Story of Uttar Pradesh and the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections
While announcing the change in the symbol, Rajbhar referred to recent elections in Uttar Pradesh and alleged that his political opponents, working under a “conspiracy” to “weaken” the SBSP, were getting the ‘hockey’ symbol allotted to some or the other candidate to confuse voters.
According to Rajbhar, voters were getting confused between the ‘stick’ and the ‘hockey stick’ (and ball) symbols.
This strategy was disrupting 5,000-8000 votes of the SBSP in every election, Rajbhar said.
He further said that the new symbol, ‘key’, would open the doors of development and rights for the poor, weak, deprived and oppressed sections of the society.
“Babasaheb Bhimarao Ambedkar used to say that political power is the masterkey,” said Rajbhar.
Rajbhar’s fears about the ‘hockey stick’ can be traced back to the recent Lok Sabha election. Under an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajbhar’s SBSP was allotted one seat — Ghosi — in East Uttar Pradesh. His elder son Arvind Rajbhar was the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) candidate. However, it ended in a disaster for him. Not only did Arvind Rajbhar lose his seat, he could only manage 29.57% votes.
The Samajwadi Party’s (SP’s) Rajeev Rai defeated him by a handsome margin of 1.63 lakh votes. The BSP’s candidate Bal Krishna Chauhan, a former MP, managed to get a decent 2.09 lakh votes, 2.93 lakh votes behind Rai.
Lilawati Rajbhar’s election material. Photo: Facebook
But what stuck out from the result sheet was the vote tally of one Lilawati Rajbhar. A candidate of the little-known Moolniwasi Samaj Party, Lilawati polled 47,527 votes. A remarkable tally for a candidate from a small party in what was a three-way contest. What caught further attention was that Lilawati Rajbhar’s election symbol was a hockey stick and a ball. Rotated upside down, it resembled the ‘stick’ (walking stick) symbol of Arvind Rajbhar.
The SBSP claims that a fair chunk of its voters mistook the ‘hockey’ for the ‘stick’ and voted for the Moolniwasi Samaj Party candidate.
However, Bhimsen Rajbhar, the president of the Moolniwasi Samaj Party, dismissed the SBSP’s claims that its opponents were propping up candidates with the ‘hockey’ symbol in order to hurt it.
“Om Prakash Rajbhar is engaging in such theatrics so that he can divert attention from his falling mass support and lack of credibility,” Bhimsen Rajbhar told The Wire.
“His change of symbol is a result of his loss and frustration.”
Bhimsen said there was a big difference between a ‘chhadi’ and a ‘hockey with ball’. On the EVM, the SBSP’s symbol was listed at number 3 while the Moolniwasi Samaj Party’s ‘hockey’ was at the 14th option. This meant there was no scope for confusion, said Bhimsen.
“Besides, our candidate was a woman. The people of the region know Om Prakash Rajbhar and his sons by face. They are well-known,” said Bhimsen.
He dismissed the allegation that he was backed by one of the other big parties to hurt the SBSP candidate.
Arvind Rajbhar’s campaign material. Photo: Facebook
The Moolniwasi Samaj Party was registered in 2010 and has contested some seats in both 2019 and 2024 elections. In the 2024 election, apart from Ghosi it also contested in Ambedkar Nagar, where its candidate got 4,331 seats. The party also fielded its candidate in Nawada and Gaya in Bihar and Kodarma in Jharkhand in 2019, managing 3,500 to 14,000 votes.
But what explains the jump in Ghosi, where the party managed to get almost 48,000 votes?
Bhimsen says it was because the party invested all its manpower and resources in the constituency to “expose” the “opportunistic” politics of Om Prakash Rajbhar.
“He has no principles, hopping from the BJP to the SP and back to the BJP again. He always keeps his family interest in mind and has done nothing for his community,” said Bhimsen.
With six MLAs, the SBSP is the fifth largest party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, behind the BJP, SP, Apna Dal (Soneylal) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
