Ahmed Patel saviour Chhotubhai Vasava puts Congress in bind

Chhotubhai Vasava, the tribal JD-U MLA from Jhagadia who tilted the fortunes in favour of Congress leader Ahmed Patel for hotly contested Rajya Sabha seat in Gujarat, has started flexing his muscles. The firebrand leader from the Bhil community, made the acting president of Sharad Yadav-led splinter JD-U, wants a big pound of flesh from the Congress.

"We want to field our candidates on 25 seats. The influence of our Bhilistan Tiger Sena and Bharatiya Tribal Party spreads across east Gujarat. How long will the parties run by Baniyas, Brahmins and Kshatriyas dictate us, the tribals? In tribal seats only the tribal parties should be allowed to field candidates," said Vasava, sitting outside his plush home in Maljipura village in Jhagadia constituency of Bharuch.

However, JDU insiders say that Vasava is finally haggling for 19 seats and is not mood to settle below 15.

Vasava knows the tight squeeze the Congress is in. In these elections, the Congress has focused its campaign mainly around demonetization and GST that affect the urban trading centres to woo influential Patidars and OBCs. In the process, it has largely neglected the tribal belt that spreads along Gujarat's eastern border from Dangs in deep South to Banaskantha in the North.

The "unreasonable" demand has put the Congress in a dilemma that had won 16 out of 27 tribal seats in 2012 and can ill afford to part with so many seats to its junior wannabe partner that won only Jhagadia despite fielding more than 15 candidates in 2012.

Vasava's influence, besides Jhagadia, is limited to the five-odd seats of Mangrol and Mandvi in Surat, Dediapada and Nandod in Narmada and to some extent in Dahod.

Though local Congress supporters such as Anandbhai Solanki in Dediapada and Ruchir Desai in Vyara agree that the Congress has of late neglected tribals, but consider that the traditional base will not be easily dented despite the BJP making inroads with the help of RSS and VHP.

"A big chunk of Adivasis, especially the Christians, are traditional Congress voters. Moreover, there is an anti-incumbency factor against BJP. Plus, demonetization and GST have adversely impacted the Adivasis, too," said Ruchir Desai, adding that the Congress should not give more than 5-6 seats to Vasava.

But Vasava does not want to let go of the opportunity to emerge as a kingmaker and a tall leader in a spectrum devoid of tribal politics.

"I can fight alone, I do not need support of any political party, I'm myself the symbol. Amit Shah is actually ruling the JD-U. If need be, we'll fight on my Bharatiya Tribal Party which has 8 lakh members in Gujarat alone," says Vasava.

This opens up yet another possibility that Vasava is doing shadow boxing and may use the BTP to field candidates in tribal pockets where the BJP is strong and in turn helping the Congress in the game of thrones to seek his pound of flesh later.