Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) headed by Bihar Fisheries Minister Mukesh Sahani announced to contest all 403 Assembly seats in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on its agenda of reservation to the Nishad community. Earlier, Sahani launched the party in Uttar Pradesh by opening offices in Lucknow and other districts.
The Nishad community is already a beneficiary of quota under the 27 per cent reservations for the Other Backward Classes, however the community leaders have been demanding for inclusion of their community in the list of Scheduled Castes.
On Saturday, accompanied by all four MLAs of his party in Bihar and the new UP unit president, Lotan Ram Nishad, Sahani told news persons in Lucknow, “We are prepared to throw ourselves in a big way in the UP polls as voters of the community will be the deciding factor in around 160 assembly constituencies due to demographic dominance.”
When quizzed about his relations with Nishad Party, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in UP, Sahani went on the defensive and commented, “Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad is like my elder brother and we are both fighting for the same cause to provide reservation to the community.”
Talking about pre-poll alliance in UP, the Bihar minister said, “We are open to any party for alliance if they support our demand for reservation for the Nishad community under the Scheduled Castes category. It can be either BJP or Samajwadi Party."
The VIP founder, who floated his political outfit in 2018, announced that his party’s target was to win 25 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Admitting that he was angry with the Union government for not fulfilling the demands of his community, Sahani announced, "If there is a problem with Nishad community, then we will severe our ties with the National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar. But we are satisfied with the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar as it fulfilled all our demands.”
Sahani announced that the party would celebrate the death anniversary of Phulan Devi at district and divisional headquarters in UP on July 25.
