Jitin Prasada, Sanjay Nishad among four nominated to Uttar Pradesh legislative council

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government on Sunday nominated four names for the Vidhan Parishad -- Jitin Prasada, who was inducted as cabinet minister on Sunday evening, NISHAD party chief Dr Sanjay Nishad, Chaudhary Virendra Singh Gurjar and Gopal Anjaan Bhurji.
Last week, BJP in the presence of UP election in charge Dharmendra Pradhan had announced alliance with the NISHAD party. Since then, speculations were rife that Dr Nishad would be nominated as an MLC.
The nomination of Gurjar and Bhurji is being seen as BJP’s bid to woo caste votes. Chaudhary Virendra Singh Gurjar, who hails from Kairana in Shamli, is a strong Gurjar leader from west UP region.
Chaudhary Virendra had switched loyalty from Samajwadi Party to BJP before 2019 Lok Sabha elections and diligently campaigned for the BJP. His contribution in the Lok Sabha elections was acknowledged by several BJP leaders as it paved the way for the win of party candidate Sanjeev Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar. Chaudhary Virendra was an MLC from Samajwadi Party when he had switched loyalty.
The fourth BJP nominee Gopal Anjaan Bhurji comes from Moradabad. Bhurji community has presence in west UP and some parts of east UP. BJP think tank believes his nomination would help in wooing voters of Bhurji community.
A senior BJP leader said no other party thinks at such micro level for the welfare of people. The party’s motto is "Sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas", and this is what it actually means as the party has taken care of members from almost every community in the state, he added.
The tenures of three nominated members of the Legislative Council ended on July 5. All three — Leelawati Kushwaha, Ram Vraksha Yadav, Jitendra Yadav — were nominated by the Akhilesh government. Besides them, SRS Yadav of SP, died, which led to four vacancies out of 10 nominated seats in the UP upper House.