Nitish Kumar offers Bhojpuri film producer to join his party

Mukesh Sahni, who is emerging as a leader of the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), claims to have received an offer from Nitish Kumar to join the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

A Mumbai-based Bhojpuri film producer who prefers to be known as the son of Mallah (fisherman) has caught the fancy of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Mukesh Sahni, who is emerging as a leader of the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), claims to have received an offer from Nitish to join the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) after they met in Patna on Sunday.

Sahni, who had produced a Bhojpuri film, Ek Laila Teen Chhaila last year, said that Nitish had given him an offer to join the JD-U but would not jump into any decision without consulting his community. “I told the chief minister that I would not personally contest the election,” he said. “But I informed him at the same time that we would like to field those who can fight for the community in the future.”

Sahni’s aides said that he had asked the JD-U for at least 25 seats for the members of his community in return for his support to the party in the coming elections.

Asserting that his was a legitimate demand, Sahni said that the 19 sub-castes of the community had a combined population of more than one crore in the state but they had a negligible presence both in Parliament and the state legislature. “There are only two MPs and four MLAs of the community which is quite disproportionate to their population in Bihar,” he said.

The 34-year-old leader said that the Nitish government had taken the decision to accord the ST status to the fishermen community only a day after he had led a march to Raj Bhawan in Patna but his fight was not over. “We will take out fight for the ST status until the Centre accepts our demand,” he said.

The Mallahs are at present part of the all-important EBC groups which are expected to play a dominant role in the assembly polls due to held in October-November this year. Nitish’s offer to Sahni is being seen in the political circles as his bid to lure a young leader who has caught the fancy of his fellow caste men in a short span of time.

Courtesy: Mail Today