Election 2019: In UP, the Making and Breaking of Alliances Continues

New Delhi: With voting in the Lok Sabha elections set to begin in less than two weeks, speculation on alliances does not seem to end.  The Nishad Party that had formed an alliance on March 26 with Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), has switched after  a meeting with  Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and has announced a break-up with the opposition Grand Alliance triggered speculation that it may become an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to sources, a conflict was on between Samajwadi Party and Nishad Party over seat sharing on Maharajganj. Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad wanted his party to contest with its own party symbol from Maharajganj seat whereas SP was not ready for this,

 In the 2018 by-polls, Pravin Nishad, son of Nishad Party President, had won the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat on an SP ticket. The win made history, as Gorakhpur was considered a bastion of Adityanath, who had represented the parliamentary constituency for five consecutive terms.

Denying the news of the breaking of alliance, Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, SP spokesperson, said "The SP candidate from Gorakhpur is Rambhual Nishad. He is considered a big name in his community and from Kanpur, Ram Kumar Nishad is our candidate. Both are former MLAs. SP firmly believes in the concept of social justice. Both of these tickets are given to people belonging to marginalised community,”

He said the  Nishad Party president, a few days ago, had during a press conference in Lucknow said that people voted for jumla party because of their false promises. He further observed that both Modi and Yogi promised a lot to Nishad community but nothing was done for them.  “I want to ask from Sanjay Nishad what happened to his criticism of both Modi and Yogi now”, he added.

Azam Lari, a Gorakhpur-based  SP politician,  who worked hard during the 2018 bypolls, told Newsclick, "Nishad community is very disappointed with this move by the party. There is anger among the community for betraying them. One should remember that whole year Sanjay Nishad criticised Yogi government and his son Pravin won the Gorakhpur with the help of Akhilesh Yadav but suddenly he went and sat in the lap of Yogi. Nishad people are saying that both father and son are business of votes."

On March 26, when Nishad Party had announced alliance with SP-BSP-RLD, Sanjay Nishad had told Newsclick, "The Modi government at the Centre and Yogi Adityanath in the state has betrayed the Nishad community. The duo promised many things but nothing has been done. By joining hands with SP, we are going to repeat history, like we did in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana.

Meanwhile, Bahadur Nishad, a worker of Nishad Party told Newsclick, "SP never considered our party as a part of their alliance. They consider us as a supporting party. We wanted to fight from Maharajganj seat on our own symbol but SP was adamant. Nishad is a sitting MP but they have not declared his name so far because they were projecting someone else. They made a fool of us.”

BJP's Dirty Alliance Game

The OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), which had been publicly criticising the Modi and Yogi governments for neglecting  the Rajbhar community on various issues over the years, has also suddenly changed track and is back with the BJP-led National  Democratic Alliance.

Apart from Rajbhar's son, Arvind, and party general secretary, six other office-bearers of SBSP were given posts in diverse boards and corporations. All this was ordered by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.  Arvind was given the post of Chairman. UP Small Industries Corporation.

The dirty game of BJP alliance did not stop here. Another small party of Eastern UP, Apna Dal, had earlier split, with Anupriya Patel siding with the BJP while her mother, Krishna Patel, distancing herself. Anupriya Patel was made a minister in the Modi government, while nine office-bearers of Apna Dal were given various posts in UP’s labyrinthine power structure.

This is in a nutshell is are the trick of the trade being deployed by BJP in ‘making’ alliances.

Also Read: Elections 2019: The Great (Dirty) Game of BJP Alliances