Newsmaker: Its footprint shrinking, Gujarat tribal party hopes to find a new ally in AAP

With BTP leader and Dediapada MLA Mahesh Vasava meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on Sunday, sources say an alliance is likely to firm up when the AAP chief visits Gujarat for a rally on April 2.

Mahesh’s father Chhotubhai Vasava, 78, is a politician from the Bhil tribe who started out in the CPI(M) and later joined the Janata Party and its later-day versions of the Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United). Chhotubhai, who won his first Assembly election in 1990 from Jhagadia seat, as the Janata Dal candidate, hasn’t lost an election since then.

When the JD(U) split in 2017, Chhotubhai sided with Sharad Yadav and staked claim on the JD(U) election symbol. But with the Election Commission of India ruling in favour of the Nitish Kumar-led faction, Chhotubhai joined the BTP that his son Mahesh set up earlier that year.

The party, born out of the Bhilistan Tiger Sena — an outfit led by Mahesh that ran a sustained campaign for statehood for Bhilistan, an Adivasi belt along Gujarat’s eastern border — holds influence in the districts of Bharuch and Narmada and in the tribal pockets of south and central Gujarat.

The party claims it has about five lakh members across Gujarat’s tribal areas, besides a presence in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

At the height of his influence, as a JD(U) leader, Chhotubhai had established a hold on two district panchayats in Narmada and Bharuch as well as three taluka panchayats — Dediapada and Sagbara in Narmada, and Netrang in Bharuch district — in the 2015 local body elections.

In Rajasthan, the BTP has two MLAs who represent the tribal constituencies of Sagwada and Chaurasia. It is also in power in the taluka panchayats of Dungarpur, Udaipur and Banswara.

Chhotubhai had a longstanding personal relationship with the late Congressman Ahmed Patel, a fellow Bharuch leader. In 2017, when several MLAs deserted the Congress, putting Patel’s re-election to the Rajya Sabha in jeopardy, it is believed that it was Chhotubhai’s vote then, as Gujarat’s lone Janata Dal (U) MLA, that ensured his victory.

It’s a relationship that led to the BTP joining hands with the Congress ahead of the 2017 elections. But while Chhotubhai demanded 10 seats as part of the seat-sharing deal in the elections that year, the Congress parted with only seven seats, of which the BTP won two — Chhotubhai won Jhagadia in Bharuch and Mahesh won from Dediapada in Narmada district.

The relationship took a turn for the worse during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the Congress rejected Chhotubhai’s proposal to back him from the Bharuch Lok Sabha constituency against sitting BJP MLA Mansukh Vasava, and instead fielded a candidate, turning it into a triangular contest. Chhotubhai lost in an election where the BJP went on to win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Then, during the 2020 Rajya Sabha elections, with the Congress fielding two candidates and faced with a situation like the 2017 — when several of its MLAs quit ahead of the Rajya Sabha election, taking its count in the Assembly down from the 77 seats it had won in 2017 to 66 — Chhotubhai and Mahesh abstained from casting votes. Though the math was such that the Congress would not have won even with Vasavas’ votes, the distrust between the two sides ran deep.

In December 2020, the BTP snapped ties with the Congress, saying the “coalition was unsustainable due to differences”.

Chhotubhai also kept a distance from the Congress-backed tribal protests against the Par Tapi Narmada river linking project, which has now been suspended. Earlier this month, Rajesh Vasava, vice-president of the BTP, joined the Congress and Chhotubhai lost one of his confidants.

The break-up with the Congress coincided with the BTP’s footprint shrinking even further in the tribal belts of Narmada and Bharuch districts.

In the 2021 panchayat elections, in Narmada district, the BTP’s election campaign, which revolved around the issue of tribal rights and the issue of the eco-sensitive zone being notified in 121 villages of the district, was unable to win a single seat in Garudeshwar taluka. In Dediapada taluka panchayat, where the JD(U) held 12 seats in 2015, the BTP came down to two notwithstanding the fact that Mahesh is Dediapada MLA.

In Bharuch, the BTP lost the three taluka panchayats of Valia, Jhagadia and Netrang that it had won in its earlier JD(U) avatar.

Chhotubhai denies the BTP’s electoral performance is a sign of its shrinking presence on the ground. “It is untrue that the BTP has lost support on ground. The fact is that the BJP, which has been in power in the state, has been using the state machinery for manipulating election results… They use the law against the people who are contesting against them,” he told The Indian Express.

For Chhotubhai, the alliance with the AAP is a final attempt at establishing itself as a prominent tribal party. “We have always been open to alliances with parties that are vocal and interested in tribal issues… The Congress and the BJP are the same and uninterested in tribal issues. At this moment, AAP comes across as a party that supports actual causes on the ground… Kejriwal has sought details of tribal issues… if they are honest about working for the upliftment of tribals, the BTP will take this opportunity because our aim has not changed. We want to keep the BJP out and thwart all those collective forces that are exploiting the original people of the land.”

Chhotubhai believes the AAP’s image of an urban party won’t come in the way of an alliance. “The AAP is definitely a party that has only contested in urban areas but that is why it is looking for an alliance with us. We are rooted in tribal culture and are from the tribal areas. We will discuss the issues with them and see what their response is… Things will be clear after April 2 once I meet Arvind Kejriwal.”