After facing setbacks in Bihar politics, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief and former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni has now decided to focus his full strength on Uttar Pradesh politics. Making the demand for Scheduled Caste (SC) status for the Nishad community a major political issue, Sahni has launched the slogan “No reservation, no vote” in Uttar Pradesh. He has given state Fisheries Minister Dr. Sanjay Nishad six months’ time, warning that if the Nishad community does not receive Scheduled Caste status before the 2027 assembly elections, the community will not support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). To this end, a “Nishad Reservation Sankalp Yatra” has also been announced across the state.
Mukesh Sahni’s party, VIP, has sometimes participated in politics in Bihar in alliance with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and sometimes with the Grand Alliance, but the party failed to achieve the desired success in the recent assembly elections. Following this, Sahni has shifted his political focus to Uttar Pradesh. He believes that Uttar Pradesh has a large population of castes such as Nishad, Mallah, Bind, Kewat, Kashyap, and Dhivar, which can be united around the issue of reservation and transformed into a political force.
Reservation has been made the biggest electoral weapon
Mukesh Sahni says that in states like West Bengal and Odisha, the Nishad community enjoys Scheduled Caste benefits, while in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, this privilege is absent. He will launch a public relations campaign and a Sankalp Yatra across the state to address this issue. At an event in Basti, he clearly stated that if reservations are not granted, the community will not vote for the BJP.
Sahni also targeted Minister Dr. Sanjay Nishad, saying that he has promised reservations for the Nishad community for years, but no concrete results have been achieved. He challenged him to make a clear decision on reservations within six months, saying that if this is not done, the Nishad community will make its own political decision.
Equations are being balanced from Purvanchal to Central UP
VIP’s strategy is to focus on assembly constituencies where the Nishad, Mallah, Bind, Kewat, and Kashyap communities are considered decisive. The party is particularly focused on districts like Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Gonda, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Varanasi, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Ballia, Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Mau, Prayagraj, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Kanpur Dehat, Unnao, and Lucknow. The influence of the Nishad community, which lives along the river banks in these areas, is believed to influence the election results in many assembly seats.
On which seats can VIP contest?
According to party sources, VIP is preparing to field candidates in seats where the Nishad community has significant influence. While the final list has not yet been announced, organizational expansion and booth-level preparations have begun in several dozen seats in Purvanchal and Central Uttar Pradesh. Through the Sankalp Yatra, the party plans to first strengthen its social base and then formulate its election strategy.
As the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections approach, smaller parties are working to strengthen their social bases. The extent to which Mukesh Sahni’s reservation campaign will impact the Nishad community’s vote will become clear in the coming months. For now, it’s certain that after Bihar, VIP has now made a major bet on the reservation issue to establish its presence in Uttar Pradesh politics.