Ajay Nishad joins Congress.
Credit: Special Arrangement
New Delhi: Ajay Kumar Nishad on Tuesday became the third sitting BJP MP to join the Congress after being denied a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections.
Nishad is presently the MP from Bihar's Muzaffarpur, which he won in 2014 and 2019, and the Congress expects that his entry would help them consolidate votes from the Extremely Backward Classes in Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Champaran and Madhubani regions.
Earlier, Churu MP Rahul Kaswan and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh had joined the Congress.
Nishad's father Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad was a Lok Sabha MP four times -- from RJD 1996-2004 and from JD(U) 2009-14 -- from Muzaffarpur before he left the seat for his son.
Vowing to strengthen the Congress in Bihar, Nishad joined the Congress at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh, AICC in-charge of state Mohan Prakash, party's MP from Kishanganj Mohammad Javed and AICC head of media and Congress Media Department chairperson Pawan Khera.
He said he was told by the BJP that surveys showed that he was losing and that was the reason why he was not chosen. When he told the party that he won by a margin of 4.10 lakh votes, he said he was told that he did not get any votes but the one above him got the votes, in a veiled reference to BJP mascot Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"I have to crush someone's arrogance. I have to reclaim my self-respect. Even a person condemned to the gallows is given a final wish but I was not even told once before my ticket was cut. This would be an election not of 'dhanbal (money power) but of 'janta ka bal (people's might)',” he said.
Singh said Nishad could influence EBC votes in areas in and around Muzaffarpur. Khera said that Nishad's joining showed that all is not well in the BJP camp.