Lucknow, Oct 5 (IANS): Nishad Party chief and Uttar Pradesh minister Sanjay Nishad has reiterated his party’s demand for a caste survey in UP and said that he hoped that “elder brother” BJP would ensure that his party got “respectable number of seats” as part of the seat-sharing agreement in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“We are in favour of a caste survey/census in UP as per census manual of 1961 so that all castes are aware of their numerical strength. We also demand that riverine community of fishermen and boatmen be included in Scheduled Castes and be counted as such,” Nishad said.

He blamed the previous SP and BSP governments of denying what was due to the riverine community and stated that his party would contest the forthcoming 2024 LS polls on its own symbol.

Since the party was founded in 2016, the Nishad party chief’s son Pravin Nishad has twice been a Lok Sabha MP, but on another party’s symbol – once on SP symbol in the 2018 Lok Sabha by-poll from Gorakhpur and on the BJP’s symbol from Sant Kabir Nagar in 2019.

Nishad’s other son Sarvan too became a lawmaker from Chauri Chaura assembly seat on BJP symbol in 2022 UP polls.

Of the 11 Nishad party candidates who contested and won the 2022 UP polls, five did so on the BJP symbol.