By Pradeep Kapoor
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav wants to revive the magic of bandit queen Phoolan Devi by making her sister Meenakshi Nishad as state president of the women wing of the party.
It would be worth mentioning here that Nishad community belongs to OBCs and occupy important position in vote politics because of its 8-10 percent presence in the population and influence in 80 assembly constituencies of Central and eastern U tar Pradesh.. Nishad community has kewat, mallah, bind and kashyap sub-castes in broader framework.
Keeping in mind 2027 assembly polls in the state, Akhilesh Yadav is now targetting powerful nishad/mallah caste of most backward caste group which plays important role in Central and eastern UP.
Akhilesh Yadav is aware that bandit queen Phoolan Devi played very important role in bringing her caste people to Samajwadi Party when Mulayam Singh Yadav inducted her in the party and gave party ticket in Lok Sabha and she won from Mirzapur- Badhoi.
There is no doubt that Phoolan Devi became symbol of victim of upper caste oppression and helped in winning over sympathy from her nishad community for Samajwadi Party. She also helped in expanding the social base of Samajwadi Party from muslim-yadav combination and bringing OBCs to party fold.
It became a symbol of social pride when Phoolan Devi became the representative of the community in Lok Sabha. Then Sanjay Nishad came into lime light and launched his Nishad Party and earlier joined Samajwadi Party and later on shifted loyalty to NDA and helped BJP in successive elections.
The appointment of Meenakshi Nishad as state President of women wing of Samajwadi Party is very significant in view of demoralisation in the community due to apathy of BJP government in the state.
How helpless cabinet minister Sanjay Nishad felt inspite of being part of the government when he publicly broke down in tears at a big meeting of his community held at Gorakhpur recently.
Addressing the huge rally, Sanjay Nishad said that his community was suffering and their grievances were not being attended by the government. The community members were struggling for their rights, he added.
Taking the advantage of the situation, Akhilesh Yadav asked sarcastically Sanjay Nishad whether his tears were genuine or something else.
Akhilesh Yadav is working very hard to expand the support of his PDA which stands for Pichda, dalit and alpsankhayak (backwards, dalits and minorities). He is also making inroads in small caste groups to expand the social base of Samajwadi Party. (IPA Service)
