A day after the exit polls that gave a majority to BJP, UP CM Yogi Adityanath expelled his ally minister OP Rajbhar from the cabinet. Rajbhar has been the part of UP government since 2017 and has been known for criticizing the Chief Minister

Mr. Rajbhar, the chief of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, claimed to have handed in his resignation last month. "We welcome the decision. I quit in April but Yogi didn`t accept it. The speed with which you removed me, do work for backward castes with the same speed," he told reporters this morning.

Since last year, Mr. Rajbhar had been publicly targeting Yogi Adityanath, accusing him of neglecting allies and the backward castes. In April, he dramatically marched into Yogi Adityanath`s home in Lucknow at 3 am with his resignation letter and demanded to see him. He left when told that the chief minister was sleeping. The party managed to placate him and stop him from storming out of the coalition.

Mr. Rajbhar`s sacking finally came about a day after exit polls predicted a huge win for the BJP in the national election and another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Sunday, he had needled the BJP again by telling reporters that in eastern UP, the opposition alliance of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav would win big. Hours later, exit polls suggested that the BJP would score big, and losing some seats to the opposition alliance in UP wouldn`t really make a difference.

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