Lucknow, April 23 : UP Fisheries Minister Sanjay Nishad, who was roughed up at a wedding in Mohammadpur Kathar village in the state's Sant Kabir Nagar district recently, on Tuesday claimed the attack was meant to eliminate him.

Talking to reporters here, the minister said, "The attackers were from the Samajwadi Party. The people of the village where the attack took place found out information about them. I got to know they had come with a flag of the Samajwadi Party. A named FIR was lodged and four persons have already been arrested."

He further said, "It was the village of Nishads and I was attending a wedding at a Nishad household. Suddenly, 20-25 people attacked us. We were caught unawares. It is the time of elections. They might have come to eliminate me and my politics. Dr Sanjay Nishad ki politics khatam karna chahte the. (They wanted to end my politics)."

The minister said that security had been beefed up at his residence.

The minister, however, said that though his dream to see his party symbol being represented in Parliament will not be fulfilled because he has not been given a seat to contest, he was happy that he had got representation in the UP Legislative Council.

"We may get representation in the Rajya Sabha if not Lok Sabha. It is no mean feat that eight Nishad candidates have got tickets this time in UP," he said.

The BJP has given a ticket to Pravin Nishad who is the minister's son. He will contest Sant Kabir Nagar on a BJP ticket.

"BJP is our big brother, and we will go with their decision. We will be with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even if we do not get a seat to contest on our symbol. There are no second thoughts on that," he asserted.

The minister said that Uttar Pradesh has over 25 seats where Nishads are in significant numbers.

"BJP must have done its survey on such seats to know where the population of Nishads is concentrated. Now, we will work to ensure the win of BJP candidates on all 80 seats in the state," he said.

/IANS