AAP troubles mount in Gujarat as tribal MLA, seen as LS material, now in govt cross-hairs

The FIR against its working president and Dediapada MLA, Chaitar Vasava, came a fortnight after he had led an eight-day padyatra through tribal districts, doing Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi Yatra in reverse – from Dandi to Sabarmati. The march was called in protest against Gyan Sahayak Yojana, a contractual teacher recruitment programme of the state government.

Having dislodged his mentor Chhotu Vasava from the Dediapada seat, Chaitar had openly expressed his desire to contest from the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat. Dediapada falls within the Bharuch constituency, and is a general category seat that has been retained by tribal BJP leader Mansukh Vasava for seven terms.

Gujarat AAP has called the FIR a pressure tactic against Chaitar to dissuade him from contesting the Lok Sabha elections. However, internally, the party is worried that the BJP may be trying to poach him, a speculation that has been fanned by Mansukh’s repeated allegations against own partymen of conspiring to bring Chaitar into the party fold.

The Congress also sees the FIR as a BJP move to “make Chaitar relent”. The party will be worried about any such development as a leading contender in its ranks for a ticket from Bharuch is Mumtaz, the daughter of late Congress leader and Bharuch MP Ahmed Patel. She has been touring the seat for some time now.

The series of developments have followed an announcement in August by Gadhvi that the AAP would ally with the Congress for the 2024 LS elections – a commitment that left state units of both parties unsettled.

Asked about where the Congress-AAP understanding stood, Gujarat Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil said: “It is neither Isudan (Gadhvi) nor me who will decide on the pre-poll alliance. This decision will be taken at the national level, as per the INDIA bloc strategy…”

For many state Congress leaders, who blame the AAP for the party’s decline in Gujarat, a tie-up is unthinkable. In 35 seats in Gujarat in last year’s state polls, the AAP had dented the Congress, with 9 of the seats being Congress bastions in tribal districts.

In the case of Chaitar, the AAP is leaving nothing to chance, getting its former Gujarat president and current Maharashtra in-charge Gopal Italia to represent Chaitar’s wife Shakuntala as well as his personal assistant Jitendra, who are among the three arrested in the case so far.

Senior AAP leaders admitted that Chaitar leaving would be a big blow, as the party sees in him the chance to win a Lok Sabha seat. A leader said: “It is true that Chaitarbhai’s popularity is immense… He has been preparing the ground for the Lok Sabha on his own… The BJP is rattled by his presence in Bharuch.”

Among the AAP leaders who have quit since the Assembly polls are its vice-presidents Bhema Chaudhary, Vasram Sagathiya, Arjun Rathwa and Manoj Bhuptani, state secretary Haresh Kothari, and Dharamwendra Gohil, all of whom went to the Congress; and Prafful Vasava, who has not joined any other party.

Italia said, “Many leaders have defected. But it does not mean that the AAP has reduced in size or number. We are in the hearts of the people… The BJP is trying to build pressure on us by booking us in false cases.”

With inputs from Sohini Ghosh