Few days after the Nishad Party ( Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal) joined the SP-BSP gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh, its Chief Sanjay Nishad announced earlier in the day that his party will not be a part of the gathbandhan in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to Nishad, the decision was taken as his party was allegedly sidelined and a consensus could not be formed on fielding his son Praveen Nishad from Maharajganj on the party symbol.
“The Nishad Party has taken a decision that we are not with the gathbandhan. We are free and we can fight elections independently or can look for new options as well. The party is free now”, said Sanjay Nishad.
Following the announcement, Sanjay Nishad had a meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in which it was decided that the Nishad Party will contest on its own symbol, however, from where the party will be contesting will be decided by the NDA. However, no announcement regarding the alliance with the NDA has been made as yet.
Nishad Party chief, Sanjay Nishad, on joining NDA alliance for Lok Sabha elections: UP CM assured me yesterday that our grievances will be heard & dealt with. Nishad Party will contest on its own symbol. NDA will decide who will contest from where pic.twitter.com/9FZJHjUula
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 30, 2019
Nishad said that Akhilesh Yadav had given them assurance to announce from where the party will be contesting the polls but his party was not represented anywhere on the posters or the banners of the gathbandhan. “Akhilesh Yadav has given assurance that he will announce about from where the Nishad Party will contest polls. He promised one seat from his quota. But we are nowhere neither on the posters of gathbandhan nor on banners. Nothing has been announced till date”, he said.
According to Nishad Party media-in-charge Nikky Nishad, the party wanted to contest on its own party symbol but the Samajwadi Party did not agree and therefore the party workers who did not want to contest on the SP symbol started to quit.
Sanjay Nishad’s son Praveen Nishad had successfully contested form the Gorakhpur seat, a BJP stronghold, in 2018 bypolls on SP ticket.
