45-year-old Gonda utensil trader Vinod Kumar Sahani, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a sharp-edged weapon attack, triggered a protest at KGMU on Thursday as Cabinet Minister Sanjay Nishad and Rajpal Kashchyap, the state president of Samajwadi Party’s Backward Classes wing sat on a dharna with the victim’s family and demanded action against police personnel.
Adding to it was Sanjay Nishad’s ‘tough-talk’ on what he plans to do next. “ Is ghatna ki ninda karta hoon. Prashasan ko chetavni deta hoon ki apradhi ki koi jaati nahi hoti hai (I condemn this incident. I warn the administration that criminals have no caste.”. Vinod was from Nishad community which comes under OBC category while the accused — Shubham Singh, Subhash Singh and Akash Singh — hail from the upper caste.
Recently while talking to the media, Sanjay went to the extent of publicly announcing if the SC status is accorded to Nishad community, his party will not seek a single seat from the BJP in the 2027 Assembly elections and will still continue to remain with the saffron brigade. Political experts opine that Sanjay Nishad’s sit-in apparently originated from the fact that murder victim Vinod Sahani was from the Nishad community and he wanted to be seen standing with them in the run-up to the 2027 polls. The accused claimed during questioning that Vinod had posted objectionable and divisive content on social media targeting a particular community as a result of which they ‘got back to him’, according to Gonda SP Abhishek Jha.
“Imagine the state of law and order in the state where a minister in the state cabinet had to stage a sit-in to get his voice heard by the police,” Akhilesh said reacting to the murder. “His sharing the dharna space with SP’s Rajpal Kashyap, too could be an attempt to send across a message to the BJP that he had options with him,” said one of them. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav described the murder as another instance of atrocities on the PDA community – comprising Pichrde (Backward Classes), Dalits and Alpsankhyaks – at the hands of a specific upper caste community enjoying patronage of the powers that be. Akhilesh also spoke to Vinod Sahani’s son Raja over phone and assured him of all possible help. SP member Kajal Nishad also reached Gonda and met the family. This likelihood stemmed from some recent statements of Sanjay Nishad – the national president of NISHAD Party and an ally of the BJP . Sanjay has been exerting pressure on UP govt and at the Centre to accord Scheduled Caste status and reservation for the Nishad community and its seven sub-castes in Uttar Pradesh, comprising Mallah, Kewat, Manjhi, Bind, and other riverine or fisherfolk groups. The community is currently classified under the OBC category. With his demand unfulfilled and assembly elections round the corner in UP, Sanjay has started exerting renewed pressure on the BJP govts in UP and at the Centre, at least for the sake of public posturing if nothing more.