During his day-long visit to Uttar Pradesh, home minister Shah will also attend a “Nishad Samaj Jan Sabha” on 17th Dec. According to political experts cited by ANI, the Nishad community has been a useful electoral asset for the BJP and its votes are expected to be decisive in around 160 assembly constituencies in eastern and central Uttar Pradesh. Ruling party also expects to team up with several other small and regional parties to contest the 2022 assembly polls in the state.
For its part, the Nishad Party launched a survey in various districts of eastern and central Uttar Pradesh in August to identify the seats on which the party nominees will be in a winnable position in the upcoming polls. The results of the survey, are said to have been submitted to BJP national president JP Nadda, who will now be finalising the seat-sharing formula for the elections.
A total of 18 districts in Uttar Pradesh have a sizeable population of the Nishad community. They are Prayagraj, Firozabad, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar, Banda, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Auraiya, Lucknow, Unnao, Meerut, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi, and Jaunpur.
The BJP is dominant in about 20 Lok Sabha constituencies and 60 Assembly segments in Uttar Pradesh. The seat-sharing agreement has not been announced yet. In 2017, the BJP had given a total of 19 seats to its two allies-Apna Dal(S) and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
