Vikassheel Insaan Party to contest U.P. Assembly election next year

National Democratic Alliance constituent in Bihar Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) led by Mukesh Sahani will contest the upcoming Assembly election in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh next year.

Also learn: Ahead of 2022, Nishad Party seeks bigger share in energy from ally BJP

Mr. Sahani is Minister of Animal Husbandry and Fish Resources within the NDA alliance authorities led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar. His get together VIP has 4 MLAs within the State Assembly.

Mr. Sahani’s get together, although, has not but determined whether or not it’ll contest as a part of the NDA or in alliance with different events.

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“Our first preference will be to fight an alliance with the BJP, as our party is part of the NDA, but we’re also keeping our options open”, stated Mr. Sahani, a former Bollywood set designer.

Mr. Sahani shaped the VIP in 2018.

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“We’ve identified around 150 seats in U.P. where the party can put up candidates”, Mr. Sahani added.

Mr. Sahani comes from the Nishad (fishermen and boatmen) neighborhood, which is about 14% of U.P.’s inhabitants and stated to dominate almost 160 seats out of 403 Assembly seats within the State. In almost 70 Assembly constituencies, the inhabitants of Nishad is over 75,000.

On July 3, the VIP has scheduled a programme in Lucknow to open get together workplaces in all divisions of the State to gear up for the upcoming Assembly election.

“Besides, the party will also observe the death anniversary of slain former bandit queen and former MP Phoolan Devi on July 25 all across U.P. as part of its focus to mobilise Nishad and other sub-castes in the community”, stated Mr. Sahani.

“I’ll be attending a programme in Gorakhpur and NDA leaders too will be invited on the occasion”, Mr. Sahani informed reporters in Patna on Thursday.

Phoolan Devi, who belonged to the Nishad neighborhood, was killed in New Delhi on July 25, 2001.

In the 2019 Parliamentary ballot, the VIP had contested three seats in Bihar in alliance with the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)and the Congress however didn’t emerge victorious in any of them.

In 2020, simply forward of the Bihar Assembly ballot, the VIP walked out of the RJD-led mahagathbandhan and joined arms with the NDA.

Under the NDA alliance, the get together was given 11 seats to contest the Assembly ballot, of which it received 4 however Mr. Sahani himself misplaced from Simri-Bakhtiyarpur seat and received elected to the State council in January this year to turn out to be a minister within the Nitish Kumar Cabinet.

However, Mr. Sahani is at present stated to be upset with the NDA in Bihar for ignoring him within the number of 12 MLCs from Governor’s quota in March this year.

He lately had a closed-door assembly with one other NDA ally Jitan Ram Manjhi, a transfer that triggered hypothesis within the State’s political circles. Mr. Manjhi, although, later asserted that he was a part of the NDA and there was no cause for being upset.

Days in the past, the Nishad Party in U.P., which is an ally of the ruling BJP within the State, had demanded the put up of Deputy Chief Minister for its chief Sanjay Nishad, “if the alliance wins the Assembly poll in 2022”.

The Nishad Party has one MLA in U.P., whereas Sanjay Nishad’s son Pravin is a BJP MP from Sant Kabir Nagar.

Political analysts stated that “the BJP may have planned to counter the Nishad Party or clip its electoral wings by bringing in the VIP for the U.P. poll”.

“But the VIP has no organisational base in U.P.”, opined Ajay Kumar, a political analyst.