The Pipero seat in Gujarat’s Dahod district panchayat witnessed a unique situation: a candidate has filed three nominations from three competing political parties – Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP — for the April 26 elections.
After the scrutiny of nominations on Monday, the candidate, 46-year-old Bharatsinh Vankhla, chose to contest as a BJP candidate, leaving the district panchayat seat with no official candidates from the two key opposition parties.
The Congress alleged an “understanding” between Vankhla and the BJP, and said it will file a complaint against him.
The Dahod district panchayat has 50 seats of which 44 were won by the BJP in the 2021 elections.
Vankhla, a veteran politician who had switched political parties multiple times in the past, filed all his three nominations on Saturday, the last day of filing nominations for the local body polls in the state. Accompanied by AAP workers, Vankhla first filed his nomination papers as a party candidate at the election office in Dhanpur taluka of Dahod district. Later in the day, he returned to the office with Congress workers and filed another nomination for the Pipero seat. He visited the office again on the same day and filed his nomination as a BJP candidate.
During the scrutiny of nominations on Monday, officials found three nomination forms filed by Vankhla with mandates of three political parties and they called Vankhla to the office and asked him to pick only one party to contest and he picked the BJP.
As per the norm, he submitted two affidavits recusing himself from fighting the polls for Congress and AAP which were accepted by election officials and he was declared BJP’s official candidate from Pipero seat.
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Two independent candidates, Vijay Baraiya and Laxman Khabad, had also filed their nomination forms for the seat, which were approved after scrutiny.
Dahod district Congress president Harshad Ninama accused Vankhla of cheating both the Congress and the AAP after reaching an “understanding” with the BJP. He added that the Congress will extend its support to independent candidate Vijay Bariya in the April 26 elections.
“Bharatsinh has cheated both the Congress and AAP. He hid his understanding with the BJP from Congress and AAP and took mandates from us. Our party leaders accompanied him to the election office at Dhanpur on Saturday when he filed his nomination for the party. We are planning to file a cheating complaint against Bharatsinh,” Ninama said.
Vankhla, meanwhile, said that he chose the BJP as the same party is ruling Gujarat and at the Centre.
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“First, I contacted AAP, then Congress and finally the BJP. All three of them had agreed to give me a ticket, but I did not rely on them and filled my nomination forms from all three political parties. On Monday, I learnt from the election branch officials that all three political parties had given me mandates. I have decided to contest from the BJP, as the same party is ruling Gujarat and the Centre. I have submitted two affidavits stating that I will not contest the election from Congress or AAP, which the returning officer has accepted,” Vankhla told The Indian Express.
The returning officer of Dhanpur taluka in Dahod District, Hetalben Katara, said, “Bharatsinh had filed three forms — with BJP, Congress and AAP mandates. It was up to him to pick one party to contest the election. He had told us that he would contest the election for the BJP. After he filed the affidavits, we have accepted his nomination form for the BJP”.
From Congress to AAP, now in BJP
Bharatsinh Vankhla won the Taluka Panchayat election in Dahod twice in 2010 and 2015 as a Congress candidate. In the 2017 Assembly elections, he was the Congress candidate from the Devgadh Baria but lost to BJP’s Bachu Khabad. By the time the 2022 Assembly elections were held, Vankhla had joined the AAP and contested from the same seat and lost again.
“While contesting the election for the BJP, I will get an opportunity to serve the people of Dhanpur taluka. I am a farmer by profession and have been doing social activities for the last few years,” Vankhla says.
Kamal Saiyed is a senior Correspondent for The Indian Express, providing extensive, on-the-ground coverage from Surat and the broader South Gujarat region and the Union territories of Daman, Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli. With a reporting career at the publication spanning back to 2007, he has established himself as a high-authority voice on the industrial, social, and political pulse of one of India’s fastest-growing urban hubs.
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