BJP ally and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad, who is also a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, is trying to widen his party’s footprint on the ground after not getting a ticket to contest the seat he won in the recent UP Assembly by-elections. Travel to 200 assembly constituencies of the state – from west to east. His demand? Scheduled Caste status for 17 sub-castes.
Nishad has covered six constituencies in the Samvaidhan Adhikar Yatra (March for Constitutional Rights) which started from Maa Shakumbri Devi Shaktipeeth in Saharanpur on November 30 and reached Ghaziabad on Thursday. According to Nishad, the yatra will cover 200 constituencies of 18 divisions in three phases and conclude with a big rally in New Delhi.
The trip is significant because, one, constitutional rights and the fight to protect them has been the agenda of the All India Alliance since the Lok Sabha elections and second, the move comes at a time when the BJP is considering developing its own leadership among the Nishad community. Instead of relying on Sanjay Nishad, he took up boating and fishing.
Although the Nishad Party has a large presence in more than 150 constituencies in central and eastern Uttar Pradesh in divisions like Gorakhpur, Basti, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Prayagraj and Varanasi, through this trip it is trying to penetrate the community. West too. Party sources said the BJP’s decision not to give tickets from Manjhwa, which it had won in 2022, has left the party uneasy. It is for this reason that the party has decided to go on tour and strengthen its presence before the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2027.
The Nishad party also sought Katehri, which has a large population of Nishad voters. But the BJP decided to field Dharmaraj Nishad, who was earlier in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). BJP won both Katehri and Manjhwa. The party has not yet given any response to Nishad’s decision to go on a trip as they are looking for alternatives from within the party.
At a rally in Ghaziabad, Sanjay Nishad challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BSP president Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to debate the caste census. A party leader present at the program said that the idea is to form an inter-caste alliance. Leaders of the Kashyap and Gujjar communities, which have a significant presence in western UP, were also present at the rally, he said. Referring to the Gujjars, Sanjay Nishad invited Gujjar king Maharaja Mihir Bhoj and said that the Gujjar movement for quota in Rajasthan had inspired a similar movement he had started for the rights of his community.