SP fields MBC nominee for Rajya Sabha

At present, Nishad is party’s national general secretary. He is a former MP and has served as minister during SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s previous regime. Nishad lost the 2012 Assembly polls from Baberu in Banda and again in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections from Hamirpur.

He has, however, been accommodated with an eye on the MBC votebank, which includes Nishad and 16 other communities.

SP had banked on these castes during the Lok Sabha elections and announced to give Scheduled Caste status to them. Minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati was made in-charge for mobilising these castes. Mulayam has now reverted to his old loyalist for keeping these castes in his favour.

Baghel, on the other hand, has switched loyalties several times. He was an official in UP police for 10 years. He had also served as security officer to Mulayam Singh Yadav (1989-91) and N D Tiwari (1988-89) during their tenure as chief minister. He resigned in 1993 for a teaching job under the Higher Education Commission and and he still takes classes of defence studies in Agra College.

Later, Mulayam offered him Lok Sabha ticket from Jalesar in 1998 which he won and retained it in 1999 and 2004.

Later, when Jalesar was scrapped and Firozabad was made a new constituency, Mulayam denied him ticket as he fielded Akhilesh Yadav. Baghel revolted and joined BSP and contested against Akhilesh but lost. Again, he contested against Dimple Yadav in the bypoll from the same seat, which was won by Congress candidate Raj Babbar. BSP, however, sent him to Rajya Sabha.

Before the Lok Sabha polls, he joined the BJP, resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat, and got BJP ticket from Firozabad where he lost to Akhilesh’s cousin Akshay Yadav.