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In 2024, we will open our account in Lok Sabha: Nishad party chief
Sanjay Nishad has seen the BJP welcome SBSP chief OP Rajbhar into its fold - a development many claim would cut into his bargaining capacity
LUCKNOW Sanjay Nishad, the fisheries minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and head of the Nishad party, a BJP ally in the state, is all smiles at the apparent paradoxes in his life.
One of them has been that though his son Pravin has been a second-term Lok Sabha MP, ‘bhojan bhari thaali’ - Nishad party’s election symbol has still not been introduced in the Lok Sabha. That’s because Sanjay’s son has been a Lok Sabha MP, once on Samajwadi Party ticket and at present is an MP on BJP’s symbol.
Nishad brushed it by describing the arrangement as ‘tactical.’
“This time, we would open our account in Lok Sabha,” he said indicating towards the likelihood of a “healthy seat-sharing pact” with the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Nishad community leader said this at the ‘Coffee with HT’ programme at the Hndustan Times office in Lucknow on Tuesday.
Another paradox he battles is that despite being a BJP ally, he is yet to get his riverine community included in the scheduled caste category, for which he has met top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP chief JP Nadda.
“Only BJP which has governments in the state and at the Centre would be able to ensure this,” he said sounding confident that the move will soon find fruition.
In 2018 Lok Sabha by-polls, his son Pravin contested on Samajwadi Party symbol from Gorakhpur and won, a result which made BJP sit up and take notice of his community’s vote bank in east UP. This led to him becoming a part of the NDA ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which BJP got his son to contest on their symbol.
Sanjay Nishad, who was associated with BSP founder Kanshiram in the 1970s and 80s, has just seen the BJP welcome another former BSP mate Om Prakash Rajbhar, chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), into the BJP - a development many claim he fears would cut into his bargaining capacity.
“No, I don’t think the opposition alliance would have any effect as BSP is not part of it,” he said while claiming that the SP-BSP alliance in 2018 happened at his behest. How many seats is he hoping to get in 2024? “Let us see,” he said indicating that talks with the BJP were on.
