Four new members of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council were administered oath at a function held in the Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Wednesday.

The new incumbent included former Congress leader Jitin Prasada who joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and was also rewarded with a berth in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet.

Besides Prasada, Sanjay Nishad who heads Nishad (Nirbal Indian Shosit Hamara Aam Dal) Party, Chaudhary Virendra Singh Gujjar and Gopal Anjan Bhurji were administered oath by Legislative Council Chairman Manvendra Singh in the Tandon Hall of the UP Assembly.

The four members were nominated to the Upper House of the UP legislature in September.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh were among those present on the occasion.

Sanjay Nishad was in the news for his demand that the BJP should project him as a deputy chief ministerial face in the upcoming assembly elections and claimed that Nishads (fishermen) constituted about 18 per cent of the electorate and played a deciding role in 160 assembly constituencies.

The Nishad Party had contested the 2017 assembly elections in alliance with the Peace Party led by Dr Mohamed Ayub and contested 72 seats and party candidate Vijay Mishra had won from Gyanpur constituency in Bhadohi.

Union minister and BJP in-charge for UP, Dharmendra Pradhan had recently announced a tie-up with Nishad Party for the 2022 assembly election. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party had entered into an alliance with the BJP and Sanjay Nishad's son Praveen Nishad was fielded from Sant Kabir Nagar from where he won the election.