BJP reaches out to Mallahs to sail through choppy waters in Uttar Pradesh

When Nishad Party leader Sanjay Nishad on Thursday demanded Deputy Chief Ministership in the next BJP government in the state or talked about contesting 160 seats, many, even within the BJP, felt he was punching above his weight. But as Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections near, the ruling party is gearing up to tackle such pulls and pressures from small caste groups, which are so crucial to its electoral script in the caste-ridden politics of the Hindi heartland state.

The non-Yadav backward castes have been the bedrock of BJP's support base in Uttar Pradesh over the last seven years and wooing them back now is crucial as the impression gathers that the caste calculus the Modi-Shah built assiduously in Uttar Pradesh is now under strain.

Other backward castes (OBCs) constitute roughly 44 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s electorate, out of which the numerically most dominant, Yadavs, stand solidly behind the Samajwadi Party. The BJP's hopes hinge on making the maximum from the block of the 200-odd non-Yadav backward castes.

Also read — Nishad Party demands deputy CM post from BJP if alliance wins 2022 UP Assembly polls

Mallahs, or the boatmen community, constituting roughly 5 per cent of total electorates, divided into 27 sub-castes known as Kevat, Nishad, Kashyap and spread across nearly 125 assembly seats on the banks of river Ganga and Yamuna in the state, have off late warmed up to the BJP, which is not tired of referring to the mythological relationship between Lord Ram and the Kevat in the epic Ramayana.

Nishad votes in these seats range between 15,000 to 70,000.

Nishad Party led by Sanjay Nishad has one MLA, while its leader's son Praveen Kumar Nishad is a BJP MP from Sant Kabir Nagar.

Sanjay Nishad met Amit Shah and J P Nadda this month. On Tuesday, he said that he has demanded 160 seats for his party candidates in 2022 state polls, claiming that the community's population in 70 seats is over 75,000. In what may not be music to the BJP's ears, the ally leader said, "If not chief minister, then going into the elections with me as the deputy chief minister face would benefit the BJP."

In May 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reached out to the community, launching 11 solar-powered “e-boats” in Varanasi and telling them how India’s new satellite had been named NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) to honour the contribution of the “courageous boatmen (naavik) to the nation.

The community has currently no leader with pan-state acceptance after the killing of ‘Bandit Queen’ Phoolan Devi in 2001. She had risen in the community's expectations after becoming a Samajwadi Party MP, and had formed the Eklavya Sena.

With political ambitions rising, the community, which has switched its support to parties across the spectrum in the last few years, had organised a protest meeting in Delhi to seek proper representation for itself. The demands included a sub-quota within 27 per cent OBC reservation and ultimately Scheduled Caste status. In June 2019, the Yogi Adityanath government even included Mallahs among 17 castes in the list of Scheduled Castes, a decision which was stayed by the Allahabad High Court.

In the last few years, while the BJP inducted a number of Nishad leaders from parties including the BSP in its fold, the party has made a concerted bid to rope in the community, whose support in Assembly seats close to the river bank may help the BJP undo the damages to its prospects in local seats due to the massive Opposition campaign around the images of bodies floating in the Ganga during the pandemic.

In August 2020, BJP nominated a leader from the community Jay Prakash Nishad for Rajya Sabha. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the then BJP president Amit Shah promised to build an 80-feet tall statue of Nishadraj in Allahabad.

In 2016, the BJP had inducted former Rajya Sabha MP from BSP Narendra Kashyap from the Nishad community. In 2017 polls, BSP had its MLC Suresh Kashyap to woo the Kashyap-Nishad caste group. Before this, the Congress had in the run-up to 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh highlighted the contribution of Nishad icons of the freedom struggle like Lochan Mallah and Samadhan Nishad while organising an "ati-pichchra" (most backward) rally in the state.

In the neighbouring Bihar, the 'son of Mallah' Mukesh Sahni, currently, a minister in Nitish Kumar government and founder of Vikassheel Insaan Party, was first spotted by the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He later migrated to the Opposition-led grand alliance before coming back to the NDA fold and winning four Assembly seats.