BJP ally, UP minister hints bulldozer ‘misuse’ behind poll setback: ‘Uproot poor, and they will uproot you’

In the continuing soul-searching within the Uttar Pradesh BJP and its partners over the NDA’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, ally Sanjay Nishad has raised the issue of “misuse of bulldozer against the poor”.

A minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and chief of the NISHAD Party, Sanjay Nishad told media persons on Monday: “Garib ko ujadenge toh woh hamein ujadega rajneeti mein (Uproot the poor, and they will uproot us in politics).”

Nishad’s comments follow statements by other leaders of the BJP and its allies expressing unhappiness over the state administration’s functioning, holding it responsible for the party tumbling from 62 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP to 33. Nishad’s son and sitting Sant Kabir Nagar MP Praveen Nishad was among those who lost.

While Nishad sought to blame “officials working for the Samajwadi Party and BSP” for the “misuse of bulldozers” in his remarks, hours later, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath put up an official post on X regarding ongoing demolitions for the Kukrail River Revival Project in Lucknow, which have been marked by protests. He assured that private houses on private land would not be demolished for the project and that “guilty officers” would be held accountable.

Speaking to reporters, Nishad said that bulldozers are meant to tackle the “mafia” or to make roads, not to raze the accommodation of “a poor woman who has been living at the same place for 90 years and has no other place to live”. “Mahaul waise hi kharab hai. Uspe adhikari aur kharab kar de rahe hain (The environment is already unfavourable. On top of it, the officials are making it worse),” Nishad said.

The NISHAD Party chief gave the example of a woman who, he said, lodged a rightful complaint against