BJP’s big catch: MP who won Gorakhpur

New Delhi/Lucknow, April 4

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In a boost for the BJP in UP, the Nishad Party today announced an alliance with it and Praveen Nishad, who won the Gorakphur Lok Sabha bypoll last year on the SP ticket, joined the saffron party.

Hours later, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav termed it a “ghaate wala sauda”, or loss-making deal, for the BJP and also alleged that money had changed hands.

Nishad, whose father Sanjay Nishad is the head of the Nishad Party, won from UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s home turf after the SP and the BSP joined hands there to take on the BJP. Akhilesh said by inducting Nishad, the BJP was entering into a loss-making deal, not realising that the people in Gorakhpur had voted for the SP-BSP alliance and not for the candidate.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Akhilesh also mocked the BJP for not coming out with its manifesto yet, asking if it planned to release it only when the elections are over.

“Will the PM’s achhe din (good times) manifesto come after the elections?” he tweeted in Hindi. He insinuated that Nishad switched over to the BJP in return for a bag of ‘prasad’ (cash) from the ‘mathadheesh’ of Gorakhnath temple, referring to Adityanath. He, however, did not substantiate the allegation.

Ahead of the LS poll, the Nishad Party joined the SP-BSP-RLD alliance on March 26. Three days later, it quit.

It was keen to contest on its own symbol this time, but Akhilesh apparently wanted it to contest on the SP ticket again. On Thursday, Nishad joined the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of Union minister JP Nadda. Nadda said the Gorakhnath MP had joined BJP due to his faith in the policies of the Modi government.

The Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (Nishad Party) was formed in 2016. — PTI