The Ami, a tributary of the Rapti river, that flows gently past the village of Maghar no longer yields the fish the Nishads settled on its banks caught and sold in earlier times. Complaints about its poisoned waters, thanks to the chemical effluents that leach into it from nearby factories, have produced no results. Locals say that the factory owners ensure that the water samples sent for testing are clean.
Here, in Uttar Pradesh’s Khalilabad Assembly segment, located in Sant Kabir Nagar district, the poisoned waters of the Ami and the resultant loss of livelihood have become hot political issues.
Halchal Nishad, sipping his morning cup of tea, tells me, “We are primarily fishermen, but the chemical factory two kilometres away has poisoned the Ami. The fish are dying; we are dying. There is little land here: in any case, when there was drought, no one helped us.”
Maghar has 10,000-odd voters; a large chunk are Nishads of which a majority, Bhauron Nishad says, had voted for the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2007, the Samajwadi Party in 2012 (both Assembly elections) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls here.
But this time, they have decided to vote for Dr. Sanjay Nishad’s brand new outfit, the Nishad Party.
But surely the Nishad Party cannot hope to form a government in U.P., I ask. Pat comes the answer: “We have tried all the other parties and none of them paid attention to us, so why not try a party that will exclusively look at our concerns,” says Halchal Nishad. The others nod in agreement.
“Look at the Yadavs and the Jatavs: they have their own parties, the SP and the BSP. They have shown their strength and others have joined them and helped them form governments. We may achieve nothing this time, but we have the potential for growth in future,” says Sajjan Nishad, who now sells fruit.
Indeed, the Nishads – along with the associated castes of Mallahs, Kewats and Binds, who also live along the rivers and are boatmen — could make a difference in about 70 of the 403 Assembly segments, says Dr. Sanjay Nishad.
Using this numerical strength, he says, he hopes – along with electoral partners Peace Party, led by Dr. Ayub, and the Mahan Dal, led by Keshav Dev Maurya – he can make a dent in the traditional vote banks of the bigger parties in 2017.
The Nishad Party was formed on April 28, 2015 but has hit the headlines several times since then: there have been massive rallies across the state, and there has been the agitation it has led to secure five per cent of the SC quota for the Nishads.
Earlier, the Nishads were classified as OBC in the State list, but then the SP government moved them to the SC grouping. But, with the better off SCs cornering the quota, the community has now asked for a defined share.
In 2017, if the Nishads across the State follow the example of their brethren in Maghar, the older parties in U.P. will have to redo their electoral maths, as the Nishad Party — along with its allies — could emerge as a spoiler.
