Nishad Party, Which Won Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur Seat, May Switch Over to BJP

New Delhi: In a big jolt to the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Nishad Party on Friday said it has parted ways with the mahagathbandhan and was free to "look for other options".

The break-up, just two days after the tie-up was announced, was followed by the Nishad party chief Sanjay Nishad meeting Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Sanjay Nishad’s son and incumbent Samajwadi Party MP from Gorakhpur, Pravin, and UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh were also present in the meeting.

The meeting has triggered speculation that the two parties would enter into an alliance, however, no announcement has been made yet.

Announcing the end of the alliance with SP-BSP, Sanjay Nishad said Akhilesh Yadav had said he will make an announcement on the seats on which his party would contest.

“But they didn’t put our name on poster/letter or anything. My party workers were upset with this. So the Nishad Party has taken a decision today that we are not with the ‘gathbandhan’ anymore,” he told News18.

He said his party is now free now. “It can fight the elections independently and can look for other options as well.”

Nikky Nishad, the media in-charge of the Party, said the alliance ended as there was a conflict over the Maharajganj seat as Nishad Party wanted to contest with its own party symbol whereas Samajwadi Party was not ready for it. The party workers were not willing to contest on the SP symbol and many of them began quitting, he said.

It was just two days back that the Nishad (Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal) Party in a press conference in Lucknow on Tuesday had announced that it will be joining the grand opposition alliance in the state.

The day the Nishad Party announced its decision to join the alliance, Sanjay Nishad had said at a press conference, “Our constitution, youth and farmers' futures are in grave danger. People voted for a 'jumlebaz' party cause 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.”