Lucknow: After an unsuccessful attempt in the assembly elections last year, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), another Nishad-centric political party from Bihar, has started efforts to make inroads into the Nishad-dominated Purvanchal region, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The party is taking out ‘sankalp yatra’ in regions with considerable Nishad population where people from the community are administered oath with ‘Gangajal’ in their hands to support the VIP and its mission to get the Scheduled caste status for Nishads.
VIP had made its political foray in the state in the 2022 assembly elections and it will contest Lok Sabha elections in UP for the first time. Though the party did not win any seat, it claimed that on a few seats it performed better than the Congress.
“The yatra is on in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. We are fighting for SC reservation for Nishads in every state,” said VIP national spokesperson, Dev Jyoti.
The next leg of the ‘yatra’ has been planned in Jaunpur on September 9, in which the national president and party founder, Mukesh Sahani, will be present. The campaign was launched on July 25, the death anniversary of bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi.
The yatra, which will continue till November, has already covered Ayodhya, Sultanpur and Ambedkar Nagar districts.
Dev Jyoti said the yatra was getting a positive response from the people. In UP, the BJP has tied up with the Nishad party and its president, Sanjay Nishad, is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
Like VIP, Nishad party’s core agenda is to get SC reservation for Nishads.
UP has several sub-castes of Nishads who live along rivers and make their living out of riverine resources.
—IANS