Lucknow, Sep 15 (IANS) A day after meeting Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey, triggering intensive discussions, Uttar Pradesh Minister and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad on Tuesday said that wrong meanings were being drawn from the meeting of “two senior politicians”.

The meeting took place at Pandey’s private residence on Monday.

Speaking to IANS, Nishad said: “Wrong meanings are being drawn from it. He is a senior leader. He used to guide us during our youth. He was ill, so meeting him was my duty. Now, when two senior leaders meet, there will be discussions on politics.”

“We discussed Vinod Sahani, that if the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act had not been taken away, perhaps such an incident would not have occurred,” he added.

Nishad, who has been vocal about demanding separate reservation for the Nishad community within the SC quota, was referring to the murder of a Nishad community member in Gonda following a dispute over social media posts.

Recently, he had led a protest against the ruling BJP-led government, despite being an ally, over Sahani’s murder.

Responding to the incident, the UP Minister said: “The Nishad Party was born out of movements like the rail movement, road movement, jail bharo movement, gherao of the Chief Minister, gherao of the Prime Minister, Jantar Mantar movement, etc. We are advocates of society, and when society has trusted us enough to make us capable of this, we have to fight for justice on the streets.”

“The Assembly comes later. If an officer is doing injustice and we still do not come out, then who will? We are not against the government; otherwise action would not have been taken (against the alleged murder). Action was taken, people were sent to jail, cases were registered, and police postings were changed. All this happened because our government stood with the victim,” he asserted.

Asked about seat-sharing for the 2027 Assembly elections, Sanjay Nishad emphasised the seats lost by the BJP-led alliance.

“In the Treta Yuga, Nishad Raj helped Lord Ram achieve victory, and the lord embraced him and trusted Nishad Raj. Today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have trusted and embraced us, so naturally we talk about victory and the seats that can help us win. All the alliance partners should be given the seats that we were defeated in. We are allies only when we win the seats that were lost,” he said.

–IANS

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