THE SAMAJWADI Party (SP) suffered a setback on Friday evening when senior party leader Jamuna Nishad left the SP and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Nishad took this step as he felt sidelined in his original party by a group of party leaders at the district level. Nishad enjoys a substantial following in the Nishad community and the SP had filed him as a party candidate for the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat against firebrand saffron leader Yogi Adityanath.
Nishad was immediately rewarded by the former chief minister and BSP chief Mayawati as he had been nominated as party in charge of Pipraich assembly segment of the district. Nishad was likely to be a candidate of the BSP from Pipraich in the coming assembly election.
Nishad had joined the SP 15-years-ago and since then he had been a prominent leader of the party. However, from January this year, Nishad was overlooked by party leaders and he was upset that the party was not giving him the attention he deserved. He had contested three parliamentary elections.