Trouble for BJP in UP as Nishads fume over reservation delay

Shah did not even mention the issue of reservation at his rally

BJP may have managed to rope in the Nishad Party to counter Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav's alliance with caste-based smaller outfits in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh but the demand for reservation by the members of the Nishad (boatmen, fishermen) community as a pre-condition for their support has put the saffron party in a fix and also threatens to divide the votes of the Nishads.

As the Nishad Party (NP) president Sanjay Nishad as well as other leaders of the community upped the ante and asked BJP to get the centre to include the community in the SC category and announce reservation for them, the state leaders of the saffron party had urged the central party leadership to at least give some assurances to the Nishad community in this regard.

Read more: At Nishad rally Amit Shah invokes Ayodhya

''It is not possible to accept the demand for reservation....it is a complicated and lengthy process...it can not be done in a hurry,'' said a state BJP leader while speaking to DH here.

Nishad community leaders, however, rubbished the assertion saying that the demand for reservation had been there for quite a long. ''The demand is not new...we have been demanding inclusion in the SC category for several years....BJP is trying to fool us,'' said Gyanendra Nishad, who has formed his own outfit Jalvanshi Nishad Party. Gyanendra had recently set up his party's office in Gorakhpur, the home town of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

He said that the NDA government in Bihar had rejected the demand of the Nishad community for reservation. ''We know that BJP will never give us a reservation,'' he said, criticising NP president Sanjay Nishad for 'surrendering' before the saffron party.

Also Read | 'No reservation, no votes': BJP gets Nishad Party ultimatum ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls

Sanjay Nishad, however, rejected the allegations and said that he would reconsider his party's alliance with the BJP if their demand for reservation was not accepted. ''We have already made it clear to the BJP...it has to agree to give us reservation if it wants votes of our community,'' he added.

Several claimants of the Nishad votes have sprung in the state in the past few months. NDA ally in Bihar Vikassheel Insan Party led by Mukesh Sahni, who calls himself 'son of mallah' has also declared that his party will put up its nominees in the forthcoming assembly polls in UP.

''Nishads have never voted for a single party.....of the many Nishad outfits none can claim to have the support of the entire community....it is doubtful if the community will rally behind any particular party in the forthcoming polls,'' said Chaudhary Lautam Ram Nishad, another community leader.

The BJP, according to sources, is wary of making any such commitment before the election since it would open the proverbial Pandora's box for them.

"If we announce reservation for Nishads, other communities will also come up with similar demands. The Kayasthas are already seeking reservation in the OBC category. Besides, Dalits will also rise in protest because they will find that their quota is being encroached upon by Nishads. We cannot afford this kind of situation when polls are just a few weeks away," said a senior BJP functionary.

Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav has further queered the pitch for the BJP by saying that if voted to power he would order a caste census and ensure reservation accordingly.

It is noteworthy that the Nishad community has been demanding inclusion and reservation in the scheduled caste category but due to constitutional and political reasons, the issue has been left pending.

Previous government in the state have taken the decision to include 17 OBC castes, including Nishad, in the SC category, but the same was stayed by courts since the issue can be decided only by the Centre.

The courts said that such a decision by the state government was in violation of Article 341 of the Constitution.

In 2005, even during Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime, the order to include 11 OBC castes in the SC category got stuck in the legal grooves. Mayawati was also ready to include these OBC castes in SC but also wanted the reservation quote for scheduled castes to be increased.

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