PHOOLAN’S SISTER RUKMINI DEVI NISHAD JOINS SP

LUCKNOW: Rukmini Devi Nishad, sister of late bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday in the presence of the party’s national president Akhilesh Yadav. Once a dacoit, Phoolan, also known as bandit queen, had later turned politician and was a Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member before she was murdered in Delhi in 2001. Rukmini Devi Nishad left the Pragatisheel Manav Party, a minor outfit, to join the SP. Along with her, Ramakant Yadav, a compulsive party-hopper also returned to the Samajwadi Party.

LUCKNOW: Rukmini Devi Nishad, sister of late bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday in the presence of the party’s national president Akhilesh Yadav.

Once a dacoit, Phoolan, also known as bandit queen, had later turned politician and was a Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member before she was murdered in Delhi in 2001.

Rukmini Devi Nishad left the Pragatisheel Manav Party, a minor outfit, to join the SP. Along with her, Ramakant Yadav, a compulsive party-hopper also returned to the Samajwadi Party.

Yadav who had been hobnobbing with the SP, had been expelled by the Congress on Thursday. He had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Ramakant had won the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat on Samajwadi Party ticket in 1996 and 1999, and then retained the seat as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate in 2004 and as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in 2009. Akhilesh Yadav is currently the MP from Azamgarh. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ramakant switched sides and joined the Congress after the BJP denied him a ticket.

After joining the SP, Rukmini Devi Nishad said, “I am leaving behind Pragatisheel Manav Party and it feels like coming home.”

Calling Akhilesh Yadav a younger brother, she said the SP chief should be given all support to enable the party to win the 2022 assembly polls and make him the chief minister again.

Ramakant Yadav said, “I am overwhelmed and overjoyed at this homecoming. I will be Akhilesh Yadav’s soldier now”.

Rukmini Devi belongs to the boatmen’s (Nishad) community which is in the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) category and has substantial numbers in several pockets in Uttar Pradesh. The SP wants to leverage her presence in the party to target the community’s votes.

Akhilesh Yadav sounded upbeat after the two recruits joined his party. “The way leaders from other parties are joining the SP and increasing the family, it is quite apparent that the party will be able to oust the BJP from UP in 2022 UP assembly polls.”

But that may be a tall order. The Samajwadi Party won 47 seats in the 403-member legislative assembly in 2017 while the BJP swept 312 seats.