Nishad Party has severed its nascent ties with the SP-BSP-RLD combine prompting the Samajwadi Party on Saturday to announce Rambhual Nishad as its candidate from the high-profile Gorakhpur seat in Uttar Pradesh. Besides Gorakhpur, the SP fielded Ram Kumar from the Kanpur seat and ST Hasan from Moradabad replacing Nasir Qureshi.
Rambhual, who was earlier with the BSP, is a two-time MLA from Kaudiram Assembly seat which he lost in 2012. He was also a Minister in the Mayawati Government and handled the Fisheries Department. He comes from Badhalganj, Gorakhpur, and wields considerable influence in the Nishad community.
The Nishad Party is now in talks with the BJP for an alliance and party chief Sanjay Nishad met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on Friday. Ironically, his son Pravin Nishad is an incumbent Samajwadi Party MP from Gorakhpur and had defeated the BJP candidate in 2018 UP by-elections with a margin of 21,000 votes. Gorakhpur has been the home turf of the UP CM and since 1998 the party had been winning from this seat.
“Nishad Party is now the member of the National Democratic Alliance and I am technically still the MP of the Samajwadi Party,” said Pravin, adding so far nothing is final and decision about my candidature from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat would be taken shortly.
Earlier this week on March 25, the Nishad Party had joined the SP-BSP-RLD alliance and it was believed that Pravin would once again be the alliance candidate from Gorakhpur.
The Nishad party is headed by Sanjay Nishad, the father of Pravin Nishad, who had contested the March 2018 by election to Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat on SP ticket and symbol. His victory had sent shock waves in the BJP as the saffron party had won this seat for consecutive 8 times since 1989. Gorakhpur is a know bastion of Adityanath, who had represented the Lok Sabha constituency for five times and earlier three elections were won by his guru Mahant Avaidyanath.
On March 25 after the Nishad Party announced its decision to join the alliance, Sanjay Nishad had said at a Press conference that, “Our constitution, youth and farmers’ futures are in grave danger. People voted for a ‘jumlebaz’ party because of their false promises. Modi and Yogi promised many things for Nishad community but nothing was done. The Nishad community will now give full support to the SP-BSP alliance in all the State.”
“The Nishad Party is no more in alliance with the Samajwadi Party,” Nikky Nishad alias Riteash Nishad, media in-charge, Nishad Party, said. “There was a conflict between the two parties on Maharajganj seat as Nishad Party wanted to contest with its own party symbol where as Samajwadi Party was not ready for it,” he added. The party workers were not willing to contest on the SP symbol and many of them began quitting, he said.
SP sources said the discord between the SP and the Nishad party occurred over the number of seats demanded by Sanjay Nishad. Besides Gorakhpur, Nishad party wanted Maharajganj and Jaunpur seat, which was rejected by the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.