In Gujarat, a Congress MLA swims across creek to press demand for bridge

“I am doing this so that the state government understands how much a bridge is needed there. I have been demanding a bridge to connect Victor Port and Chanch Bandar, the biggest village in Rajula, at the mere cost of Rs 50 crore for the last three Assembly sessions. If a 350-metre bridge is built across the Victor Port creek, the distance between the two places will reduce by 25 kilometres,” Der said.

Asking why “a Rs 50 crore bridge for villagers of the poor Koli community was not being built,” he said that “his efforts have not materialised despite requests to the state government to allot funds for a bridge”.

In 2017, Der won his debut Assembly election from Rajula by defeating the saffron party’s Hira Solanki by 12,719 votes. Rajula had been a BJP bastion since 1997. Der’s victory ensured the Congress’s win in all five Assembly constituencies — Amreli, Savarkundla, Lathi and Dhari — of the district. Solanki is the BJP candidate this time around as well. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Bharat Baldaniya.

The MLA enjoys influence locally, having been the Rajula municipality president six times. He first contested as a councillor in 2000 on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. He later switched base to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and went on to become the president of the municipality in 2003 and 2007. He was also with the BJP for a brief period in between. He joined the Congress in 2007. In the past, Der has served as the director of a local cooperative bank called the Rajula Nagrik Sahkari as well as the Rajula Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).

Known for his oratory skills and outspoken nature, Der was suspended from the Assembly in March 2018 for demanding the speaker allow fellow MLA Vikram Madam time to speak on the case related to the mysterious deaths of two children in a gurukul run by godman Asaram in Ahmedabad. In June 2021, he sat on a week-long hunger strike, alleging that the BJP MP from Amreli, Naran Kachhadiya, was blocking the transfer of a piece of railway land to the Rajula municipality.

Der is a member of the OBC Ahir community. While the Ahirs don’t hold the largest number of votes in the seat, another OBC group, the Kolis, command significant electoral influence. Party leaders, however, said that “caste considerations did not get Der votes in 2017”.

Praveen Baraiya, a Congress worker from Jafrabad, a town part of the Rajula constituency, said Der’s “clean image and readiness to work for all without discriminating on caste and religious grounds helped him win”. He added that Der “got a lead of more than 8,500 votes from Rajula town, underlining his popularity in the urban pocket”.

In the recent past, there was speculation that Der was warming up to the BJP but the switch did not come to pass. In 2018-’19, then Chief Minister Vijay Rupani laid the foundation stone of a hospital in Rajula. In November last year, Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil said that Der had “risen from the BJP”, adding that the saffron party “has kept a seat reserved for him till today”.

Der has, however, refuted the statements publicly. In July, the Congress appointed him as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. Along with fellow MLA Pratap Dudhat, Der was also in the spotlight in the aftermath of cyclone Tauktae for distributing terracotta roof tiles to affected people in the Amreli district.