Nishad Party quits 'Mahagathbandhan' in UP; its leaders meet CM Adityanath
Gorakhpur/Lucknow: Barely three days after joining the SP-BSP-RLD 'Mahagathbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh, the Nishad Party Friday sprang a surprise by parting ways with the fledgling anti-BJP alliance and meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
There was no immediate word from either side as to what transpired at the meeting between the Nishad Party leaders including its President Sanjay Nishad with Adityanath in Lucknow.
"The Nishad Party is no more in alliance with the Samajwadi Party," Nikky Nishad alias Riteash Nishad, media in-charge, Nishad Party, told PTI in Gorakhpur.
"There was conflict between the two parties on Maharajganj seat as Nishad Party wanted to contest with its own party symbol whereas Samajwadi Party was not ready for it," he added.
The party workers were not willing to contest on the SP symbol and many of them began quitting, he said.
"So, our national president Sanjay Nishad ji went to Lucknow and on late Thursday it was confirmed that the Nishad Party is no more a part of the alliance," he added.
When asked whether Pravin Nishad, MP, will also quit Samajwadi Party, he said, "I don't know about it."
The Nishad Party is headed by Sanjay Nishad, the father of Pravin Nishad who had won the Gorakhpur parliamentary seat on an SP ticket in the 2018 by-polls.
The win had been remarkable, as Gorakhpur was considered a bastion of Adityanath, who had represented the parliamentary constituency several times before.
A Nishad Party insider accused SP chief Akhilesh Yadav of backtracking on his promises.
"They did not put our name on the posters/letters or anything. Our party workers, authorities, core committee were upset," he said.
"So, the Nishad Party has taken a decision today that we are not with the 'gathbandhan', we are free, can fight elections independently and can look for other options as well. The party is free now," he added.
When contacted, SP national spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury told PTI that he had no information of the decision taken by the Nishad Party.
Just three days ago on Tuesday, the Nishad (Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal) Party in a press conference in Lucknow had announced that it was joining the grand opposition alliance in the state.
On the day of the announcement, Sanjay Nishad had addressed a press conference in which he had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling him a 'jumlebaz' as well as Adityanath.
"Our constitution, youth and farmers' futures are in grave danger. People voted for a 'jumlebaz' party cause of their false promises," he had said.
"Modi and Yogi promised many things for Nishad community but nothing was done. The Nishad community will now give full support to the SP-BSP alliance in all the state," he added.
The Nishad Party, sources said, is in talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for some seats including Gorakhpur.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
