Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The Nishad Party on Sunday launched a campaign in Lucknow for their long-pending demand for the grant of Scheduled Caste status to Nishad community.

Community members launched the campaign under the chairmanship of Nishad Party President and Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Sanjay Nishad.

Speaking to reporters, Sanjay Nishad said that previous governments cheated them and despite being a Scheduled Caste, they were included in the Backward Classes.
"Today this yatra is being taken out so that we can get the Scheduled Caste status soon. Till 1951, we were recognised as a Scheduled Tribe. We were put in the backward class group and betrayed," the Minister said.

Sanjay Nishad said that if they get recognised as Scheduled Caste they will be entitled to reservation in the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad.

"Constitutional reservation implies that we were secure in the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad. If our Ram Charitra Nishad can fight Lok Sabha polls from Machhlishahr, then poor Nishads will also fight Lok Sabha polls," he said.

The Nishad Party President said that their community was betrayed by all political parties though reservations for Nishad have been a poll promise for every party.
"All parties have betrayed Nishads. All parties have included the issue of giving reservation to Nishads in their manifestoes but they have betrayed us after forming the government," Sanjay Nishad said.

The state Cabinet Minister added that the protest should not be misconstrued to be pressure tactics on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"We are not putting pressure on the BJP. We want the NDA to come to power...For the first time in 70 years, Yogi ji wrote to RGI (Registrar General of India) and they said that we are recognised as Scheduled Caste," Sanjay Nishad said.

The Nishad Party is one of the partners of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The NDA will lock horns with the opposition INDIA bloc in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.