'No reservation, no votes': BJP gets Nishad Party ultimatum ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls

Within days after union minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah addressed the Nishad (boatmen, fishermen) community members as 'Ram Bhakts' at a joint rally in Lucknow, the Nishad Party, a key ally of the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, made it clear that the saffron party could expect to get its support only if the government announced reservation in jobs for the community.

Sanjay Nishad, the president of the Nishad Party, shot off a letter to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath to 'resolve' the issue of reservation before the elections.

"This issue (reservation) must be resolved immediately if the BJP wants to get the votes of the community," he said in the letter.

He said that his community members had agreed to attend the joint rally, which was addressed by Amit Shah, as they had been promised that Shah would say something on the issue of reservation.

"Amit Shah did not speak a word on reservation... our community members were very angry," he added.

Also read: At Nishad rally Amit Shah invokes Ayodhya

Sanjay Nishad said that even during the rally several Nshad community members waved their hands indicating that they would not vote for the saffron party until they were given reservation.

"Even now many in our community want us to quit the alliance with BJP," he said.

Though Shah heaped praise on the Nishad community and called them 'Ram Bhakts' and had also invoked 'Nishad Raj' (king), he refrained from speaking anything on the issue of reservation. There was a ruckus at the rally and several members of the Nishad community were seen smashing the chairs and raising anti-BJP slogans.

BJP leaders here remain tightlipped on the letter. "It is for the party's central leadership to take a call on the issue," a senior leader told DH.

BJP has tied up with the Nishad Party, which claims to have support of the boatmen and fishermen community to counter its main rival Samajwadi Party's alliance with several caste-based outfits in the forthcoming state assembly polls.

The Nishad community forms around four per cent of the total electorate in the state and is a deciding factor in 50 assembly constituencies.

NDA ally in Bihar, Vikassheel Insan Party founder Mukesh Sahni has declared that he will also put up his candidates on all Nishad dominated seats in the state. His entry could queer the pitch for the Nishad Party in UP as it was apprehended that the votes of the community would then be divided.

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