Union home minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Friday sought to remind the Nishad (boatmen, Fishermen) community about their close relationship with Lord Rama and appealed to them to help the BJP alliance win the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a joint rally of Nishad Party and BJP here, Shah cited from the Hindu epic 'Ram Charit Manas' and said that tears had rolled down the eyes of the 'Nishad Raj' (king of Nishads) when he saw Lord Rama and Sita Mata sleeping on the floor in the forests.
''You (people) all know very well that Ram Lala had to spend so many years under the tarpaulin (makeshift Ram Temple in Ayodhya).....you also know who had created obstacles in the way of construction of the Ram Temple,'' Shah said apparently referring to the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP).
''It was Narendra Modi who laid the foundation stone of the new grand Ram Temple,'' he added.
The former BJP national president also referred to the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Project in Varanasi and said that the BJP governments were trying to restore the cultural glory of the religious places.
Shah also listed the achievements of the Centre and the state government and said that the 'double engine' government had worked for every section of the society. ''The SP and BSP worked only for some communities but we work for everyone,'' he added.
He heaped praise on UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and said that the latter had forced the mafia elements to flee from the state and established the rule of law in the state.
The Nishad community, which formed around four per cent of the total electorate in the state, was a deciding factor in over 50 assembly constituencies in the state, especially in the eastern and central UP districts. BJP had entered into an alliance with the Nishad Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. This time also the saffron party would be leaving some seats for the Nishad Party.
An NDA ally in Bihar, Mukesh Sahni, who calls himself 'son of mallah' (boatman) and was the founder of the Vikassheel Insan Party, has also decided to take a plunge in the UP polls and contest the seats where the Nishad community members in sizable strength.
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