Tribals hold considerable sway in Gujarat politics, accounting for around 15% of the population. There are four Lok Sabha and 27 Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in the State.
The four ST reserved parliamentary seats are Chhota Udepur, Dahod, Bardoli and Valsad. Besides these ST reserved seats, other constituencies with considerable presence of tribal voters are Bharuch, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Panchmahal Lok Sabha seats.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP, riding a strong Modi wave across the country, won all 26 seats delivering a blow to the Congress, which had won Bardoli, Valsad and Dahod in 2009.
However, in the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress bounced back in the tribal region, winning 15 out of 27 Assembly segments while BJP won 9. The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) won two and the Morva Hadaf seat went to an Independent candidate.
Playing safe
Almost 18 months after the Assembly polls, the ruling BJP is being tested again in the tribal belt. The party has repeated three sitting tribal MPs — Jaswantsinh Bhabhor from Dahod, K.C. Patel from Valsad and Prabhu Vasava from Bardoli. Incumbent MP Ramsinh Rathwa was dropped from Chhota Udepur seat and replaced with Geeta Rathwa.
The Congress has also fielded sitting MLA Jitu Chaudhary from Valsad, former Union Minister Tushar Chaudhary from Bardoli, former BJP MP Babu Katara from Dahod and Ranjit Rathwa from Chhota Udepur.
Bharuch, a non-reserved but tribal dominated seat is set for an interesting contest between two veterans — the BJP’s sitting MP Mansukh Vasava will face sitting MLA and Bhartiya Tribal Party chief Chhotubhai Vasava.
The tribal population is spread across the State from Banaskantha in the north to eastern districts like Dahod and Panchmahal, to southern districts starting from Chhota Udepur to Narmada, Valsad, Tapi and Dangs.
Fight for land rights
The main demands of the tribal communities here are employment, education, healthcare, rights over forest land and irrigation facilities. More than one lakh tribals are forced to migrate for eight months to cities to work in construction sites.
“The government has not given forest lands to tribals, that’s the main issue besides unemployment,” said senior legislator Mohansinh Rathwa, whose son Ranjit is the Congress candidate from Chhota Udepur.
