If the size of the crowd a politician draws is an indicator of the power of the leader and his party, Son of Mallah a.k.a Mukesh Sahni announced with his rally at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday that political parties cannot ignore his newly floated outfit.
At least two lakh persons attended the billionaire’s Nishad Arakshan Maha Railla (rally for reservation for fishermen), the kind of crowd rallies of leaders such as Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan draw.
Around 8,000 buses brought in people from different districts and everyone sported a cap of the Nishad Vikas Sangh, an outfit formed by Sahni in 2015 before the Assembly election to fight for the cause of the fishermen community. Sahni, who runs a film production house in Mumbai, on Sunday announced the name of his new political party as VIP (Vikashsheel Insaan Party) and claimed that he will not go to anyone for tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha election and it is the big parties that will come to him with offers.
A few supporters painted their bodies with Nishad written over the paint.
Sahni made his entry movie style, by walking on a 400-metre ramp especially created for him 200 women wearing red saris showering flowers on him. The main stage was given the look of Parliament Building of New Delhi and had two 100-foot-tall statues — of freedom fighter Jubba Sahni, and Phoolan Devi.
“In the history of Bihar, it is for the first time that such a massive crowd of five lakh people have gathered here when a political party has been formed,” Sahni declared. “I challenge the other political parties to bring such a crowd with such short planning. There are a few political parties that want to eliminate me, but I am not scared of anyone; I have the support of my people.”
As he raised his hand in the air wearing a silver crown, slogans of Bihar ka CM kaisa ho Mukesh Sahni Jaisa ho echoed through the ground.
He declared that he would be the kingmaker of Bihar politics in the coming days.
Sahni, a school dropout, has his roots in Supaul Bazar in Darbhanga district and sources close to him say his net worth is Rs 1,500 crore.
The rally was organised to press his demand to include the Nishad, Bind, Mallah and Nonia communities among either the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
The Bihar government has recommended such inclusion to the Centre twice with ethnography reports — first during Rabri Devi’s government in 2004 and the second time during chief minister Nitish Kumar’s government in 2015.
However, there has been no development on this front.
Sahni announced that if his demands are not met he will field candidates from all 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar.
In a very short span of time, Sahni has established himself as leader of the Mallahs (fisherman community) who constitute about 8 per cent of Bihar’s population. At present this community comes under the extremely backward class (EBC), who constitute about 30 per cent of Bihar’s population.
