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Rajya Sabha polls: When tribal leader Chottu Bhai Vasava refused to vote
The decision of not voting, Vasava told HT, was a mark of protest against the BJP government’s “inability” to protect the rights of the tribal communities in the state. The leader added that he was equally disillusioned by the Congress.
Gujarat MLA Chottu Bhai Vasava on Friday declined to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, making it easier for the BJP candidates to win their seats. Vasava’s two Bharatiya Tribal Party MLA were expected to vote for the Congress.
The decision of not voting, Vasava told HT, was a mark of protest against the BJP government’s “inability” to protect the rights of the tribal communities in the state. The leader added that he was equally disillusioned by the Congress.
The BJP had fielded Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin, while the Congress put up Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki in the polls.
Vasava denied allegations that his decision to not vote was a covert attempt to help the BJP, which had fielded four candidates for the three vacant seats in the state.
“I have been asking the BJP government to accept our demand for making tribal areas autonomous by bringing them under Schedule 6 of the Constitution from Schedule 5. There has been no effort to accept the demands of tribal communities, instead tribal people are being divested of their land and forest produce. Even though there is a separate budgetary allocation for the tribal communities governments end up spending this money on other sectors. To protest against these irregularities, I decided not to vote,” said Vasava.
This is not the first time that the tribal leader has made news during the Rajya Sabha elections.
In August 2017, Vasava - then with the JDU - going against his party whip voted for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections.
His vote played a key role in Patel winning the elections. Vasava justifies his decision by announcing that he had done so to protest against JDU president Nitish Kumar’s decision to align with the BJP in Bihar.
Patel, along with Amit Shah and Smriti Irani at the time, was re-elected to the Upper House. The election result, announced post midnight, was marked by political wrangling as the Congress demanded that the Election Commission invalidate the votes of two MLAs who had voted for the BJP. A decision that the EC eventually announced after reviewing the issue.
