Back to supporting Gujarat BJP govt after winning as party rebels: Dhavalsinh Zala, Mavjibhai Desai and Dharmendrasinh Vaghela

As per his affidavit before the Election Commission (EC), Zala is working as a school principal. He has also cited farming as one of his sources of income.

He was first elected to the Gujarat Assembly as a Congress nominee in 2017. Then considered a close aide of Thakor youth leader Alpesh Thakor, Zala had resigned as the Congress MLA from the Assembly in 2019 along with Thakor, after cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections. He then joined the BJP, which immediately fielded him as its candidate in the by-election for the same constituency. But, he lost to the Congress’s Jashubhai Patel.

Zala continued with the BJP after that. In the 2022 Assembly elections, he was denied a BJP ticket despite a strong protest by his supporters at the party’s state headquarters, Shree Kamalam. Eventually, he contested as an Independent and won.

Mavjibhai Desai

Mavjibhai Desai, 50, started his political career as the Baivada village sarpanch in Deesa taluka of Banaskantha district in 2002-03. He was once considered a close associate of former Deesa Congress MLA Govabhai Rabari, during the period (1999-2013) when Govabhai was the chairman of the Deesa APMC and Desai a director. He is now the Deesa APMC chairman.

He contested his first Assembly election in 2017 from Dhanera on a BJP ticket, but lost to the Congress’s Nathabhai Patel (Chaudhary). Desai was the Banaskantha District Cooperative Central Bank director when newly elected Gujarat Speaker Shankar Chaudhary was its chairman. He was also the vice-chairman of the Banas Dairy between 2015 and 2020, again while Shankar Chaudhary was its chairman.

Mavjibhai, who deals in real estate in Ahmedabad since 2000 under the company Aroma, had also tried his hand briefly in the business of submersible pumps, in 1998.

His close associates reveal that he had sought the BJP ticket from Dhanera Assembly constituency in 2012 as well, and later in the 2015 bypoll after the Lok Sabha elections. This time, he was assured of the ticket by the BJP, but Bhagwanjibhai Patel (Chaudhary) was chosen over him.

Dharmendrasinh Vaghela

Dharmendrasinh Vaghela alias Bapu, 55, contested from the Waghodia Assembly constituency as a rebel BJP candidate, and defeated the official BJP nominee Ashwin Patel as well as the six-term sitting MLA Madhu Shrivastav, who was also contesting as a BJP rebel. Vaghela had also unsuccessfully contested as a BJP rebel from Waghodia in 2017, when he was suspended from the party. He is the nephew of former Vadodara Rural MLA and district BJP president Dilubha Chudasma. Chudasma had served as the vice-president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, and was a state executive member of the party, till he was suspended recently in a disciplinary action.

Chudasma is said to have extended his support to his nephew during his recent election campaign, and even posted social media messages thanking the voters for “electing my nephew as MLA of Waghodia constituency”. On Tuesday, as Vaghela handed over his letter of support for the BJP to Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, Chudasma took to Instagram and wrote, “Kesariya che ane kesariya rahese (It is saffron and will remain saffron)”.

Vaghela has been with the BJP since the early 2000s. After Chudasma became an MLA in 2002, Vaghela was appointed as the convener of the party’s vyapari (traders) cell in Vadodara. A businessman and farmer by profession, Vaghela has declared assets worth Rs 111 crore.