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BJP national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan (centre) with members of Maharshi Ved Vyas Parishad during the rally in Dumka on Sunday. (Rajesh Kumar Pandey)
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Dumka, Sept. 30: Nishads (fishermen) stepped up their long-pending demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status during a mammoth rally here today, with the BJP promising support as the community gears up to bargain with political parties ahead of the next Parliamentary and Assembly elections.
The venue of the rally, Gandhi maidan, was packed to capacity with nearly 25,000 people from across Santhal Pargana, with organising outfit Maharshi Ved Vyas Parishad roping in BJP national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan as the chief guest.
“I assure you to raise the demand for ST status to Nishads in the next session of Parliament,” said Pradhan, a Rajya Sabha member from Odisha and the BJP in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, as shouts of Nishad samaj zindabad and Dharmendra Pradhan zindabad rent the air.
He urged members of the community, classified under Other Backward Classes at present, to unite and safeguard their interests.
BJP legislator of Rajmahal Arun Mandal, also a patron of the state chapter of Maharshi Ved Vyas Parishad, said that he had approached the party’s central leadership for inclusion of the community’s demand for ST status in its manifesto during the next elections.
Echoing Pradhan’s promise, Mandal added: “I will persuade the Arjun Munda government to take necessary steps for the uplift of the Nishads, who are at the crossroads despite being original inhabitants of Jharkhand.”
Sanjay Sahni, vice-president of the state chapter of the parishad, said, “It is a matter of great concern that despite ample historical and mythological references of the Nishads, they remain impoverished and cut off from the mainstream.”
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