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Sanjay Nishad sounds poll bugle from Gorakhpur, demands SC status for community
The Nishad party won five assembly seats in 2022 but now finds itself at a crossroads as majority of the poll promises, including the most crucial one of granting SC status to the 22 sub-castes of the riverine community, remain unfulfilled.
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Launching his party’s campaign for the 2027 assembly election in Gorakhpur on Sunday, Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (Nishad) party chief and Uttar Pradesh fisheries minister Sanjay Nishad pressed for Scheduled Caste (SC) status for Nishads and 21 other sub-castes associated with riverine communities. Currently, these sub-castes are categorised as OBC.
Addressing a gathering at Digvijay Nath Park, Nishad said reservation is a right, not charity, and called for restoration of traditional rights over rivers, fishing and sand mining ghats. The event saw a 3,000-bike rally and participation from workers across eastern UP.
Demanding Scheduled Caste (SC) status, Sanjay Nishad reportedly broke down on stage during the rally, saying he will resign if the demand is not granted.
With Sunday’s political event, the Nishad party, an ally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), appeared to signal that it has started mobilising the riverine community, its support base, for next year’s polls.
Gorakhpur is the home district of Sanjay Nishad and the political and spiritual home turf of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. BJP state president Pankaj Chaudhary represents the neighbouring Maharajganj in the Lok Sabha.
The Nishad party won five assembly seats in 2022 but now finds itself at a crossroads as majority of the poll promises, including the most crucial one of granting SC status to the 22 sub-castes of the riverine community, remain unfulfilled.
The Nishad party has also decided to organise rallies in Prayagraj, Varanasi and Meerut to mobilise party workers and to draw the government’s attention toward pending demands.
Asserting that the SP’s effort to win the riverine community’s support will not succeed, he said community members know the Nishad party has worked for their welfare since its formation.
“The prime minister, Union home minister and the chief minister have assured us that the government is serious about reservation for the riverine community,” he claimed.
He blamed the Opposition parties—Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party — for complicating the reservation issue and causing a delay.
Riding on the PDA formula, the Samajwadi Party is challenging the strength of the Nishad party in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, SP candidate Laxmikant alias Pappu Nishad defeated Sanjay Nishad’s son Praveen Nishad in Sant Kabir Nagar.
Another SP candidate Rambhual Nishad defeated BJP nominee and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi from the prestigious Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat. However, BJP candidate Vinod Kumar Bind won the Bhadohi seat, defeating Trinamool Congress nominee Lalitesh Pati Tripathi.
Sanjay Nishad also faces a challenge from the ally BJP, which recently appointed former MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti as chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
Niranjan Jyoti belongs to the riverine community. Earlier, the BJP fielded Dharamraj Nishad from Katehri in Ambedkar Nagar in the 2024 assembly by-election. BJP leader Jai Prakash Nishad’s activities in the Gorakhpur region have also caused concern in the Nishad party camp.
Criticising Sanjay Nishad’s assertions, Samajwadi Party leader Rajendra Chaudhary said the riverine community cannot be taken for a ride by the Nishad party chief.
Despite being a BJP ally and a minister in UP, the Nishad party chief failed to get the important demands of the community implemented, Chaudhary said.
For his part, Sanjay Nishad claimed he is working to fulfil all the community’s demands before the assembly election. Along with including 22 sub-castes—Nishad, Kewat, Mallah, Bind, Kahar, Kashyap, Dhimar, Raikwar, Turaiha, Batham, Bhar, Rajbhar, Dhiwar, Prajapati, Kumahar, Manjhi and Machua—in the SC category, the Nishad party has also demanded restoration of sand mining, river, and traditional ghats rights to the riverine community.
“We have also demanded re-allocation of land to the landless riverine community. The Denotified Tribes (DNT) rights should also be restored,” he said.
