While the seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is yet to take a shape, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), an INDIA bloc constituent from Bihar, has already launched a campaign for the upcoming polls scheduled to be held early next year.Moreover, the VIP, led by its founder and former state minister Mukesh Sahani, has decided to contest the election as part of the INDIA alliance only.For more than two months, the VIP has been running a ‘Nishad Arakshan Sankalp Yatra’ in the state with a demand of listing the Nishad community in the Scheduled Castes category.Currently, the community is listed as OBC (Other Backward Class) in UP.Addressing gatherings from the Nishad community, the party leaders, including Sahani, take vows in the names of Ram, Maharishi Kashyap, Eklavya, freedom fighter Jubba Sahni, bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi, and their ancestors, exhorting not to vote for the BJP and its allies if they are not provided SC status before the 2027 elections.While taking oath, people also hold Gangajal in their hands.Sahani had kicked off the yatra on July 25, marking the day of assassination of Phoolan Devi who was shot dead in 2001.Devi too hailed from the Mallah (Nishad) community.Story continues below this adThe party claims that programmes have already been held in more than 50 districts of the state and the yatra will be completed in the remaining districts within a fortnight.Also Read | Alliance or revival? Why Congress faces a deep dilemma in Uttar PradeshThe VIP was a part of the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan (grand-alliance) in the Bihar Assembly polls last year. The party failed to win any of the 12 seats it contested, dashing the alliance’s hopes of making inroads into the NDA’s Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) strongholds by banking on Sahani’s “son of Mallah” plank. The grand alliance had declared Sahani the face for the deputy CM’s post in an attempt to use his influence among the Nishads, the state’s fishing and boatmen communities.Sahani’s outreach in UP is creating a challenge for the BJP alliance partner, NISHAD Party, headed by Sanjay Nishad, a minister in state government.NISHAD Party workers call the minister a “Political godfather of fishermen” who has for long been raising the demand for SC reservation for sub-castes of the community.Story continues below this adIn a post in Hindi on X, the minister on September 14 made a veiled attack on Mukesh Sahani. “The Assembly elections are around the corner. In such a scenario, the society needs to be extremely cautious of imported seasonal leaders…Someone who has been notorious in Bihar for buying and selling the votes of the fisherman community — who has already eclipsed the political rise of fishermen in Bihar, who doesn’t even have the stature to win a single Assembly set—is now setting out to mislead UP’s Nishad community by stuffing bundles of notes in his pocket, wearing a red cap and blue uniform, and playing politics of deception,” he wrote.The minister posted the message days after staging a dharna at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow, to protest against his own government over the killing of a 45-year-old trader, Vinod Sahani, in Gonda district.VIP chief Mukesh Sahni too had joined that dharna.In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, the VIP had contested 53 seats without any alliance and failed to win from even a single constituency.Also Read | Uttar Pradesh is the next big battle. Will Jantar Mantar 2.0 have a say?The party’s best performance was in Bairia seat of Ballia district where it finished third.Story continues below this adSpeaking to The Indian Express, VIP’s national youth president Santosh Sahani, who is also supervising party programmes in UP, said the party has identified the seats for the UP polls as a constituent of the INDIA alliance.Santosh Sahani said SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had during their party’s governments sent formal proposals to the Central government to shift sub-castes within the Nishad, Mallah, and Kashyap communities—from the OBC to the SC category. “We are sure that when Akhilesh Yadav will come to power, he will again send the same proposal to the Centre,” he said.In a Nishad community outreach, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav earlier this year named Rukmani Devi Nishad, sister of late Phoolan Devi, as head of the party’s women wing in the state.Phoolan was elected MP twice on the SP ticket from Mirzapur in 1996 and 1999.Story continues below this adAlso, the Central government in March this year appointed former party MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, a Nishad leader from UP, as chairperson of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).Also Read | Why Ayodhya Assembly seat is back in focus ahead of UP pollsIn UP and Bihar, the community includes various sub-castes, including Mallahs, Binds, Manjhis, Kewats, Kashyaps, Turhas, Majhwas, Bathams, Beldars, Chaiye, and Tiyar, among others. They are classified as EBC (Extremely Backward Classes) in Bihar.While the OBCs make up over 40% of the population in UP, Nishads are estimated to account for about one-fifth of the OBC votes in the state. In the Assembly elections, Nishads largely hold the key in the constituencies located along the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Ghaghara, Ramganga, Rapti, Saryu, and Gomti among others. Of the state’s 403 constituencies, Nishads are believed to play a decisive role in at least 50 seats.