'Bandit Queen' Phoolan Devi makes a comeback in Uttar Pradesh politics

She hailed from the 'Nishad' community, which commands considerable influence in around 50 assembly seats in UP

Phoolan Devi, popularly known as the 'Bandit Queen', may have been assassinated two decades back, but she appears to have made a comeback in the Uttar Pradesh electoral politics, thanks to the caste equations.

Phoolan Devi, then a Lok Sabha member, was shot dead outside her Delhi residence in 2001. She hailed from the 'Nishad' (boatmen, fishermen) community, which commands considerable influence in around 50 assembly seats in UP, where elections are barely nine months away.

Bihar minister and president of Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) Mukesh Sahni, who calls himself 'son of mallah' (son of boatman) and declared to contest the assembly polls in UP, indicated that he intended to electorally 'encash' Phoolan's popularity in the 'Nishad' community in the state.

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''We will be celebrating July 25, the day Phoolan Devi was assassinated, as martyrdom day across UP. Our workers will be paying tribute to her and recall her services for the Nishad community,'' Sahni said.

Phoolan, who represented Mirzapur in the Lok Sabha, was quite popular among the members of her community. The Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav nominated her from the seat as his party's candidate in the 1996 general elections after the then SP government withdrew all cases against her and released her from prison.

Another VIP leader, who accompanied Mukesh Sahni, said that the UP-based Nishad Party, which claimed to be the sole representative of the community, never recognised the services of Phoolan for her community.

Nishad Party had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP and its president Sanjay Nishad was nominated as the saffron party candidate from Sant Kabir Nagar LS seat.

''We are ready to nominate Sanjay Nishad from any seat he wants in the 2022 assembly polls. After all, he too is our brother. We appeal to him to join hands with us to raise the issue of inclusion of the community in the SC/ST category for reservation,'' Mukesh Sahni said.

He also refused to approach the BJP leaders for an electoral alliance in the upcoming assembly polls. ''Why should I meet BJP leaders?'' he retorted when queried in this regard.

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