Officials loyal to Opposition parties harmed NDA in U.P.: Sanjay Nishad

NISHAD party chief criticizes UP officials loyal to opposition, impacting BJP's electoral performance, prompting calls for introspection.

In a veiled attack on the bureaucracy in Uttar Pradesh, Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD) party chief Sanjay Nishad said a few officials are still loyal to Opposition parties such as the Congress, Samajwadi Party, and Bahujan Samaj Party in the State, and don’t hesitate to hurt the interests of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

He said a few officials are supporters of “Hathi [Elephant, symbol of the BSP], Cycle [reference to SP] and Panja [Congress’s Hand symbol], but outwardly back the Kamal [Lotus, the BJP symbol]”. “Hence, when they get an opportunity to bite, they even bulldoze houses of elderly people,” he said, referring to allegations that such activities by a few officials in the State may have hurt the party’s fortunes in the 2024 general election.

Mr. Nishad’s statement came a day after U.P. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that “organisation of the ruling party was greater than the government”. 

Mr. Nishad, a Minister in the U.P. government and ally of the saffron party, said it was natural that the organisation of the ruling alliance was greater than the structure of governance, and respect for party workers must be upheld.

Mr. Nishad, an influential leader of the Nishad community, an Other Backward Class (OBC) with sizeable presence in eastern U.P., faced reversal in the 2024 election when his son Praveen Nishad, contesting on a BJP ticket, lost the Sant Kabir Nagar constituency by over 90,000 votes against the SP’s Laxmikant alias Pappu Nishad. 

At the BJP State executive meeting on Sunday, Mr. Maurya had said, “Organisation is greater than government. No one is bigger than the organisation, the organisation was, is and will remain greater than the government.”

In the 2024 election, the BJP won only 33 Lok Sabha seats on its own, 29 short of its tally in the 2019 election and 38 short of its 2014 performance. BJP leaders have been openly calling for introspection after the party’s electoral setback, with an MLA from Jaunpur going as far as saying that “major” decisions need to be taken to reverse the party’s fortunes in the crucial northern State, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.