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Journalism of Courage
Congress MLA Bhagwan Barad’s defection to the BJP Wednesday marks a major shift in the politics of Gujarat’s Talala constituency, where the Barad family has been socially and electorally significant for over two decades.
Bhagwan Barad alias Bhaga Bharad was born into political legacy. His father Dhana Barad was a Congress (O) leader who shared a close relationship with former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Dhana had also served as the chairman of the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation in the 1970s. The Barads are residents of the Badalpar village near Veraval, the headquarters of Gir Somnath district. They are influential landowners but are also in the business of supplying construction material in the region. They are Ahirs, an OBC community in Gujarat, and form the second largest group of voters in Talala.
Dhana had five sons – Kalabhai, Govind, Jasubhai, Bhagwan and Ram. Amongst them, Jasubhai became the most influential as a cabinet minister and a four-time MLA. His trajectory would come to guide Bhagwan’s as well.
Jasubhai fought and won his maiden Assembly election in 1990 from Somnath with the Janata Dal, which was in alliance with the Congress, and went to serve his first stint as a minister in the Chimanbhai Patel government. He retained the Somnath seat in the following Assembly polls in 1995 as a Congress candidate. In 1998, he shifted base to Talala, winning from there. While he lost the 2002 Assembly election from Talala, he won the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat in 2004.
Bhagwan got his first chance to contest an Assembly election from the Talala constituency in 2007, with the Congress giving him a ticket from there. He defeated sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar. Until this point, Bhagwan had only won the Veraval taluka panchayat elections in the late 1990s.
In 2009, Jasubhai lost the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat to Dinu Bogha Solanki of the BJP. In the 2012 Assembly polls, the Congress ended up fielding Jasubhai from Talala, instead of sitting MLA Bhagwan, who defeated Parmar by 1498 votes.
Jasubhai lost the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat again in 2014 to Rajesh Chudasama of the BJP. Jasubhai passed away in January 2016, necessitating a bypoll in Talala, where Bhagwan got a Congress ticket.
The bypoll was Bhagwan’s first election in around 10 years. He lost to Parmar by 2441 votes. However, in the 2017 Assembly polls, Bhagwan squared off against Parmar from Talala again, defeating him.
While this MLA stint marked a rise in political fortunes, it threw a spotlight on 63-year-old Bhagwan’s past criminal cases, which eventually led to his disqualification as MLA. On March 1 2019, a trial court in Gir Somnath found Bhagwan guilty in a 1995 illegal limestone mining case and sentenced him to 33 months imprisonment, putting his MLA status in jeopardy. The trial court also stayed the verdict for 30 days to allow the convict to approach the higher courts.
Within four days, then Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi declared Bhagwan’s disqualification. On March 7 that year, the Gir Somnath district and sessions court stayed the verdict of the trial court. Bhagwan moved the Gujarat High Court (HC) against his disqualification. However, on March 10, 2019, the Election Commission announced a bypoll in Talala.
Bhagwan then moved the Gujarat HC seeking a stay on the bypoll. It did not grant him relief and the Congress leader appealed to the Supreme Court, which ordered a stay on the bypoll. In July 2019, he moved the Gujarat HC again, this time seeking a stay on his conviction. The court did so until final disposal of his appeal before the sessions court.
Setting aside the magisterial court’s order on December 16, 2020, the sessions court acquitted Barad under the IPC section 379 (theft). Barad was also booked in 2008 for allegedly assaulting a forest officer; charged by Sutrapada police for assault and criminal intimidation in 2012; and by the Veraval police in 2015 for criminal intimidation.
A party insider said that “Barad started lurching towards the saffron party after legal tangles arose out of his conviction in the illegal mining case”.
“The indications were clear when then Chief Minister Vijay Rupani came to Badalpar in 2021 to unveil a statue of Dhana Barad and dedicate to the public a community hall built on land donated by the Barad family to the state government,” a BJP functionary added.
Bhagwan’s entry into the BJP camp has, however, unsettled party plans for the Talala seat.
A party insider said that former minister Jasabha Barad, Mahendra Pithiya, Keshubhai Jadav and Hirabhai Vadher were all under consideration as the BJP candidates from the seat.
“Now it’s very likely that those names will be shoved to the dustbin. Bhagwan Barad won’t join BJP to work in the organisation or help someone else win,” the leader added.
