Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are scheduled to speak at a rally in Lucknow on Friday afternoon.
The 'Sarkar Banao, Adhikar Pao' rally is being organised by the BJP and an ally, the Nishad Party, and is expected to begin by 1pm at the Ramabai Ambedkar Ground.
In addition to Shah and Yogi, ANI reported, “Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad and state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh will make their presence in the rally. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma will also [be] present at the rally.”
ANI reported Shah would also attend a 'Nishad Samaj Jan Sabha', meeting members of the Nishad community in Lucknow.
Why do the Nishads matter?
The Nishad Party was founded in 2016 and is popular with communities such as the Nishads and Mallahs, who have riverine occupations. The party made the headlines in 2018 when Praveen Nishad, son of Sanjay Nishad, won the bypoll to the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, in a stunning blow to the BJP.
Praveen had contested on a SP ticket and had support from the BSP. However, the Nishad Party switched sides to join the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Praveen won from Sant Kabir Nagar on a BJP ticket.
Nishads are traditionally boatmen and hence they are found in substantial numbers wherever there are rivers. They are among the most economically backward castes and hence have demanded reservation. The community has had a strained relationship with the BJP over the matter. One of their tactics has included sending lakhs of petitions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for scheduled caste status. Earlier this year, the Nishad Party even fought the panchayat elections alone. The Nishad Party claims to have influence on voters in 160 of the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.
“A total of 18 districts in Uttar Pradesh have a sizeable population of the Nishad community. They are Prayagraj, Firozabad, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar, Banda, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Auraiya, Lucknow, Unnao, Meerut, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi and Jaunpur,” Hindustan Times reported.
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According to reports, Shah could use the rally to make announcements on the demand for scheduled caste status for the Nishad community. However, the path to reservation has also been complicated.
“Previous such moves by various governments—from Yogi Adityanath to Akhilesh Yadav to even his father Mulayam Singh Yadav—to move 17 OBCs to the SC list have failed either because of legal wranglings or bureaucratic hurdles,” NDTV reported.
