The BHARATIYA Tribal Party (BTP) announced on Saturday that it will participate in the upcoming local body elections in the state with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
The BTP had terminated its alliance with Congress in the district panchayats of Narmada and Bharuch, two tribal-dominated districts in Gujarat, on December 12 after Congress left it and supported the BJP in a recently concluded district panchayat election. in Rajasthan.
BTP National Chairman Mahesh Vasava, who is also the MLA of the Dediyapada constituency party in Narmada, said: “We had a bitter experience with Congress, which did not support us in the Dungarpur district panchayat elections and nine taluka panchayat in Rajasthan. After the Rajasthan experience, I had a formal conversation with Owaisi on the phone four days ago. I submitted a proposal to form a coalition with AIMIM for the upcoming local body elections in Gujarat, which was accepted by him. ”The local body elections in Gujarat will take place next year.
After accusing Congress of double treatment, Vasava said: “We have seen both sides of Congress. They had not supported our candidate in the Dungarpur district panchayat elections when we were one vote short of reaching the majority mark of 14 and being elected as zila pramukh. Congress had supported the BJP and gained power in Dungerpur. We also found that many Muslims had voted for us in local body polls in Rajasthan. ”The BTP-backed independents had won 13 of 27 Dungarpur Zila Parishad seats, while the BJP and Congress won eight and six seats respectively.
Vasava said he will meet with Owaisi in Hyderabad or Delhi soon to discuss ways to jointly move forward in Gujarat. “Our party will also contest the next Assembly elections in West Bengal,” he said.
In June, Mahesh and his father Chhotu Vasava, the founder of BTP and MLA of the Jhagadia constituency in Bharuch, abstained from voting at the Rajya Sabha polls, thus paving the way for the BJP’s victory in three of the four seats. The leader of Congress, Shaktisinh Gohil, won a seat.
On Saturday, Chhotu Vasava also tweeted the party’s decision to form a coalition with AIMIM for the local body elections in Gujarat. “We supported Congress to form a government in Rajasthan with our two MLAs, but in the recently concluded local body elections in that state, Congress misled us by not supporting our party to come to power in nine taluka panchayats and one panchayat. district (Dungarpur). Our party contested the taluka panchayat and panchayat district elections in four districts of Rajasthan: Dungarpur, Banswada, Pratapgarh and Udaipur. Our party obtained the majority in five taluka panchayats (TP) in Dungarpur, one TP in Banswada, while in nine TP our party was close to the majority mark. If Congress had supported us, we would have gained power in the 15 TPs and two district panchayats, ”he told The Indian Express.
Chhotu Vasava, accusing the BJP and Congress of being “two sides of the same coin,” said the two parties “do not want prosperity and elevation of tribes, minorities, SC / ST and OBC in the country.”
In Gujarat, the BTP and Congress had jointly led the Bharuch district panchayat, while in the Narmada district panchayat, the BTP only had a majority. In Jhagadiya, Walia, Netrang and Dediyapada taluka panchayats, the BTP had a majority.
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