Uttar Pradesh thwarts plans by NDA ally to install 'Bandit Queen' Phoolan Devi's statues

Plans to install the statues of Phoolan Devi, popularly known as the 'Bandit Queen', by the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP), an NDA ally in Bihar, in different parts of Uttar Pradesh was foiled by the police. The plan was to woo the 'Nishad' (Boatmen, Fishermen) community ahead of the assembly polls in the state, which is scheduled to be held early next year.

The police seized the statues, which were brought from Bihar by VIP leaders, in Prayagraj, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Banda and some other districts, according to sources.

The party, whose chief Mukesh Sahni was a minister in the NDA government in Bihar, was also denied permission to hold meetings to celebrate July 25, the day Phoolan Devi was assassinated, as martyrdom day.

VIP leader Ramesh Chand Kewat said that the statues had been kept at different police stations and that the authorities had not returned them to the party despite repeated requests.

The officials said that permission from the state government was not obtained to install the statues. ''Besides, it would have been in violation of the Covid protocol as people in large numbers would have assembled at the programs,'' said a senior government official here on Saturday.

Mukesh Sahni, who calls himself 'son of mallah' (son of boatman) has declared to contest the assembly polls in UP indicating that he intends to electorally 'encash' Phoolan's popularity in the 'Nishad' community in the state.

Interestingly UP-based Nishad Party was an ally of the BJP in the state and had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP and its president Sanjay Nishad's son Praveen Nishad was a saffron party MP from Sant Kabir Nagar.

Mukesh Sahni's decision to jump in the electoral fray in UP could queer the pitch for Nishad Party with whom the BJP was currently holding talks for an alliance.

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