It’s Vasava vs Vasava vs Vasava for Bharuch LS seat

Ahmedabad: The Bharuch Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat will see a three-way fight with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) all fielding candidates from the tribal Vasava community for the upcoming polls

Veteran tribal leader Chhotu Vasava has announced that his younger son Dilip Vasava, a BAP founding member will contest from the constituency.

The announcement by Vasava, a seven-time MLA, comes days after he joined BAP as its national convenor; incidentally, his elder son Mahesh Vasava had joined the BJP earlier this month.

The BAP emerged in 2023 in Rajasthan, formed by leaders of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) -- with two legislators -- who parted ways from the party initially founded by Chhotu and his son Mahesh before the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections.

The BTP, which had won two seats in Gujarat assembly elections in 2017 and added two more in the Rajasthan assembly elections in 2018, is now defunct.. The party could not replicate its success in the Gujarat assembly elections in 2022 and Rajasthan elections in 2023, not winning a single seat.

The BAP went on to win three seats in Rajasthan in 2023 and two seats in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in the same year.

Chhotu said in a video that the party had decided to field Dilip and continue advocating tribal rights from Bharuch. He said BAP would nominate candidates in numerous seats across Gujarat, adding that despite the tribal community’s ownership of forests and rural lands, successive Indian governments had oppressed them, and asserted the community’s determination to fight for constitutional rights.

Aam Aadmi Party in Bharuch

The Bharuch Lok Sabha seat from Gujarat was allocated to AAP as part of the seat-sharing pact between the INDIA bloc constituents. According to the agreement between the two sides, the Congress will contest the upcoming LS polls on 24 of Gujarat’s 26 seats and the Arvind Kejriwal-led party will field candidates from two constituencies— Bharuch and Bhavnagar.

The AAP has given ticket to Chaitar Vasava, a sitting MLA, for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat.

Chaitar, a 35-year-old tribal leader, began his political career with the BTP formed by Mahesh (mentioned earlier in the story) in 2017. Before joining the party, he had worked closely with Chhotu Vasava, Mahesh’s father besides being a confidante of the latter in the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections. He was largely credited for Mahesh’s victory from Dediapada.

However, before the Gujarat assembly polls in 2022, Mahesh rebelled against his father, forcing the latter to contest as an independent candidate. AAP was theb in alliance with the BTP but alliance broke up before the election took place. As it turned out, Chhotu lost the seat from Jhagadia, and the BJP candidate won. Meanwhile, Chaitar Vasava left BTP and joined AAP, which was already looking to make inroads in Gujarat; Chaitar won from Dediapadia on an AAP ticket 2022.

This time, the BJP has given ticket to its sitting MP Mansukh Vasava from Bharuch. He has been the sitting MP from this seat since 1998. He also served as the former Union minister of state for tribal affairs during the first term of the BJP-led government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.