Amid reports of internal dissent in BJP party before polls in Uttar Pradesh, one of the key alliance partners of the saffron party has now upped the ante by demanding the post of deputy chief minister in the event of BJP forming the next government in the state.
Sanjay Nishad, the chief of Nishad Party, which wields considerable influence among the fishermen community in some eastern UP districts, has threatened to walk out of the alliance if it was not assured of the Dy CM's post after elections.
''If the BJP wants to return to power in UP after the 2022 assembly polls, then it must project me as deputy CM face,'' Sanjay Nishad told reporters on Wednesday.
Nishad said that he has placed the demand before the senior national BJP leaders also. Nishad was in Delhi a few days ago where he had met BJP national president J P Nadda.
He claimed that the 'Nishad' community formed 18 per cent of the total electorate in UP and is in a position to influence the outcome of the polls in as many as 152 assembly constituencies.
Incidentally, Sanjay Nishad's son Praveen Nishad, as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party(SP), had defeated the BJP candidate from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat in a bypoll in 2018 after chief minister Yogi Adityanath resigned from there, following his appointment as the CM.
In 2019 LS polls, however, Praveen contested on BJP ticket from Sant Kabir Nagar seat and emerged victorious. Since then, Nishad Party has been an ally of the saffron party.
Reacting to the demand, senior BJP leader and UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the central leadership of the party would take a call on it.
Published 23 June 2021, 09:18 IST