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Journalism of Courage
As Gujarat prepares for local body polls next year and Assembly elections the year after, the state’s 84-year-old omnipresent politician Shankersinh Vaghela is planning the launch of yet another political outfit, the Praja Shakti Democratic Party (PSDP), claiming he will “topple the BJP government in the state” with it.
Once one of the power centres in Gujarat, with friends across party lines, Vaghela has long been confined to the sidelines. His frequent party hopping and formation of outfits have not helped his cause. However, as the launch of yet another outfit shows, the veteran refuses to hang his boots or to dial down his confidence.
At a recent condolence meeting in Ahmedabad for a BJP leader’s wife, he was heard talking about BJP workers “pinning their hopes on him (for a possible role in the PSDP)”.
While the PSDP was registered with the Election Commission (EC) back in 2020 and received recognition from the State Election Commission in 2023, sources said Vaghela deferred its launch.
However, the PSDP is now preparing to contest next year’s local body polls as well as the 2027 Assembly elections, and recently appointed a former royal from North Gujarat, Riddhirajsinh Parmar, as its state chief. It also claims the backing of Kanjibhai Patel, a former minister in the Keshubhai Patel government.
While he claims his outfit will topple the BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat now since 1998, Vaghela says he is himself not interested in being CM or holding any “big posts”. People had approached him “to do something about their problems”, he said, which had prompted him to float the PSDP. He claims the people who “benefited” under his tenure as CM or Union minister were ready to back him.
Drawing attention to the PSDP’s bright red logo, Vaghela points out that it is a significant shift from the blue and yellow hues of his previous outfits, and says he has “drawn inspiration from the People’s Republic of China”, without elaborating. The Udaipur turbans, red caps and the javelin thrower on his logo, he says, represent “people’s power”.
The manifesto released by the PSDP, titled “Panchamrut”, promises to abolish prohibition and introduce a new excise policy, health insurance, FREE?? education till the postgraduate level, unemployment allowance and debt waiver for farmers. “A scientific liquor policy will lead to a hike in people’s income, which can be spent on health and education,” Vaghela says.
With roots in the RSS, Vaghela began his electoral career with the Janata Party in the 1970s before rising within the BJP. In 1996, following a tiff with former CM Keshubhai Patel, he walked out of the BJP along with 48 of the party’s 121 MLAs to float his Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP). He subsequently assumed the CM’s chair with the Congress’ support.
In 1999, he merged the RJP with the Congress while most of the MLAs supporting him returned to the BJP. He rose to become the Gujarat Congress chief and it was under his stewardship that the Congress was reduced to 51 seats in the 2002 Assembly elections, which were held months after the Godhra riots.
Two years later, with the Congress-led UPA forming the government at the Centre, Vaghela was made Union minister in the first Manmohan Singh Cabinet.
Vaghela remained with the Congress till 2017, but quit after the fierce Rajya Sabha poll which saw his bete noire, the late Ahmed Patel, win by a whisker. Six MLAs followed him out of the Congress, which incidentally registered its best performance since 1995, winning 77 of the 182 seats while Vaghela’s new outfit, the Jan Vikalp Morcha (JVM), drew a blank.
In 2019, Vaghela joined the then undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and served as its general secretary only to quit within a year claiming he was “sidelined”. In 2021, ahead of the local body elections, sensing an “opportunity” following Ahmed Patel’s death, he expressed interest in rejoining the Congress. However, his overtures found no takers as the grand old party was reportedly not keen to take him back into its fold.
Between 2022 and 2024, his meetings with several leaders like the NCP’s Sharad Pawar, former Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad triggered speculations about his next move ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Adding fuel to the fire were his meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav within the same week in August. However, nothing seemingly transpired from the meetings as he was forced to lay low during the polls.
Vaghela, who once told The Indian Express that floating a party requires “crores of rupees”, is yet to make the party’s finances public, and says the PSDP is for “everyone – OBC, Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Muslims”.
With the PSDP signalling its intent to contest the polls, buzz surrounding a possible non-Congress, non-BJP front in the state has gained momentum. Vaghela, who too seems to have pinned his hopes on such a front, says: “Where was (former Delhi CM) Arvind Kerjiwal a few years ago?… There is nothing like a B-team or C-team. The notion that a third front would not work in Gujarat is wrong. See, for instance Delhi, where a small party like the AAP was able to unseat the Congress, which was in power for three consecutive terms.”
The AAP, however, claims that only it can pivot any non-Congress, non-BJP alliance. “While everyone has the right to float a party, Kejriwal’s success in Gujarat is due to his health and education schemes. His face works. With a weak Congress, the AAP has already emerged as the main Opposition party in Gujarat with a 14% vote share in the 2022 polls, a feat which no ‘third’ party has achieved,” the party’s Gujarat chief Isudan Gadhvi told The Indian Express.
