The fall and rise of Chhotu Vasava – the larger than life tribal leader of Gujarat

As one travels towards Bharuch in south Gujarat, into the tribal belt of the state, the roads turn bumpy, even as mud cottages replace cement houses and small tea stalls replace fancy eateries. It is here in a small, nondescript town of Jhagadiya that every third or fourth house, bicycles and even trees bear the flags of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), a political outfit founded by veteran tribal leader Chhotu Vasava in 2017.

Chhotu Vasava, fondly referred to as Chhotubhai Vasava, who belongs to the Bhil community, has been an elected MLA from Jhagadiya constituency for seven times since 1990. In the span of three decades of his dominance, Vasava has seen many opponents come and go, including candidates of the BJP. His campaign slogans– ‘Sirf naam hi kafi hai, sirf ek hi sarkar’ (One name is enough. Only one government) reveal the popularity he enjoys in the area.

For over three decades Vasava’s popularity soared, but he suffered a huge blow when he lost the 2022 Gujarat assembly election. But just one year since, Vasava is back in the reckoning with the return of the leaders who had left his party fold. Interestingly, the ‘ghar vapasi’ of the leaders has been fuelled by the Centre’s push for a Uniform Civil Code.

In his village, Vasava is many things to the people. He is as hated by the state officials and local landlords as loved by the local tribals. He is their bhai (brother) and masiha (saviour). For the law enforcement agencies, he is Chambala (after the dacoits of the forests of Chambal). Interestingly, his political career and crime graph both can be traced to the year 1972 when he raised his voice for the first time for tribal rights.

After a brief tryst with the Communist Party of India, he switched to the Janata Dal in 1990 to be the lone MLA of the party for six terms. In 2017, he quit JD(U) and pledged allegiance to Sharad Yadav. Vasava contested state polls from the newly formed Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) and won from Jhagadiya for the seventh time. He even spread his footprints to the tribal areas of Rajasthan.

Noticeably, in 2017 Gujarat state polls, Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) fielded its own candidate from Jhagadiya as Chhotu Vasava quit the party to form the BTP. Interestingly, JD(U)’s candidate’s name was also Chhotu Vasava. This led to apprehensions within BTP that people might vote for the wrong Chhotu Vasava. But people made no such mistake and the ‘real’ Chhotu Vasava won.

Amid the confusion, BJP poached Ravji Vasava, former close aide of Chhotu Amarsinh Vasava and fielded him as the candidate. However, the tribal veteran leader was confident of his win and had retained the seat.

For decades, Chhotu Vasava has ruled the region from his home in the village, Jhagadiya, which has been the citadel of his operations.

But in 2022 fate turned against Vasava. While Chhotu Vasava lost the seat to BJP, what led to his loss was a family fued. BTP had decided to field Mahesh Vasava, the party president and son of Chhotu Vasava from Jhagadiya in 2022. As Mahesh Vasava filed nomination papers as BTP candidate from Jhagadia, Chhotubhai Vasava and his other son Dilip Vasava filed nomination papers as independent candidates from the same constituency.

Confusion prevailed for days until the family decided to settle the matter. A marathon meeting was held at Chhotu Vasava’s Jhagadiya residence amid Vasava family members. When the meeting ended, Dilip and Mahesh took back their candidature leaving the seat for Chhotu Vasava, the patriarch of the BTP party.

“We did it to save our family and put up a joint fight against the Congress and BJP candidates,” Mahesh Vasava had told the media at the time of filing his nominations from Dediapara, the seat from which he won the 2017 polls.

Even though the family managed a truce, the relations remained sour. The truce may have saved the family’s peace momentarily, but the father-son feud led to the BTP crumbling from within as multiple mid-level leaders left the party. The morale of the party hit rock bottom when Mahesh and Chhotu Vasava lost their seats to the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP respectively.

The decline of Chhotu Vasava, a larger-than-life figure and tribal leader with immense popularity in South Gujarat paved the way for AAP to grow in tribal districts, where the party won three seats in 2022 state polls. Of the 27 assembly constituencies dominated by tribals, 24 fall in south Gujarat, an area dominated by Bhils, a community which Chhotu Vasava hails from. In fact, Vasavas hold sway over parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too. Similarly, of the 26 Lok Sabha seats, three are dominated by tribals.

“Chhotu Vasava and his son Mahesh had been having disagreements over the functioning of the party (BTP) for some time. Just ahead of the 2022 polls, Chhotu Vasava announced BTP’s alliance with JD(U) while Mahesh denied any such development. The father-son duo had been running the party as if it were their family. Even the feud over the nomination from Jhagadiya seat was resolved within the family and not in a party meeting. Naturally, many mid-level leaders felt left out and disgruntled,” tells Romel Sutariya, a tribal rights activist and political observer.

Noticeably, Chaiter Vasava contested as an AAP candidate from Dediapara in the 2022 polls and won the seat defeating BTP’s Mahesh Vasava, Congress and BJP candidates. Dediapara is one of the three seats that AAP won from the tribal areas of Gujarat.

Thirty-four-year-old Chaiter who joined the BTP in 2014 has blamed the feud between the father and son for his exit from the party despite his close relations with Chhotu Vasava.

“He is immensely popular in the tribal belt of south Gujarat. He has been the sole representative of the tribal politics of the region for years when no other political party was in the reckoning. Even when parties turned their interest to electoral politics in tribal regions, it has always been Chhotu Vasava against the Congress, or Chhotu Vasava against the BJP. If it was not for the difference between Chhotu Vasava and his son Mahesh, Chhotubhai would never have lost. Almost all the tribal leaders who joined AAP last year have been trained by Chhotubhai. He will always be our leader but we quit BTP as we felt that the leadership was getting more involved in electoral politics than working on core tribal issues,” said Praful Vasava, who has now quit AAP.

“However, since the AAP central leadership declared their stand over the issue of UCC, many of us have quit,” adds Praful.

Noticeably, since AAP has supported UCC at the centre, tribal support base of the party has been falling apart in Gujarat. A large chunk of the tribal workers that AAP had poached from BTP have gone back to the home party. Even Chaiter Vasava, AAP’s MLA threatened to quit the party if the central leadership did not change its stand on UCC.

The Dediapada MLA, who is also the Legislative Party leader of AAP in the Gujarat assembly, held a meeting in Rajpipla in Narmada district last month with tribal leaders of 14 districts of the state to discuss the road ahead in case the UCC was to be implemented.

“The tribals will suffer the maximum damage in terms of reservation, inheritance laws, empowerment and education etc if the UCC is implemented. There is no denying that mass resignation from the party is a possibility if AAP doesn’t change its stand on UCC,” said Chaiter.

“Chhotu and Mahesh used to take all decisions within themselves without consulting the party members. They kept changing party alliances from Congress in 2017 and AIMIM, to AAP and then JD(U) ahead of 2022 polls. While most of us who left wanted to stick to core tribal issues,” Chaiter told The Federal.

“Chhotu Vasava has been a tall leader in the region. In fact, he is one of the primary reasons why BJP despite its many attempts couldn’t make inroads into the area. He has been a thorn impediment for the BJP since his vote was the deciding factor for Congress MP Ahmed Patel’s victory against the BJPs candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls of 2017. His decline not only paved the way for AAP but it also led to BJP winning in the tribal region massively for the first time in the electoral history of Gujarat,” said Sutariya.

“With AAP trying to find its foot in the tribal belt, many rising leaders from BTP saw an opportunity and quit the party. Some of them like Chaiter Vasava were handpicked and trained by Chhotu Vasava himself. He had been Chhotu Vasava’s personal assistant for years and grew to be a fiery tribal leader. He had also played a crucial role in Mahesh’s win from Dediapada in 2017. Another crucial leader of BTP who quit the party to join AAP was Praful Vasava who had been Mahesh’s assistant,” adds Sutariya.

The tribal bahubali

Vasava is named in 24 criminal cases, including two of murder and one of attempted murder.

For the tribal people of south Gujarat, these facts don’t count. They are not bothered about the cases against him. For the locals, Chhotu Vasava is a father figure, the ‘Robinhood’, who has defended them against landlords and forest officials.

The first case slapped against Vasava was that of murder of a police inspector when he had just joined the Janata Dal (United) — then Janata Dal. Following the murder, Vasava had to live the life of a fugitive hiding in the forests of Gujarat and Maharashtra until he got anticipatory bail from Gujarat High Court. The Gujarat government slapped an array of cases against Vasava between 2000 and 2002 when he raised the demand of a separate state for Bhils and began mobilising tribals from all over the state in support of the demand.

However, that did not dent Chhotu Vasava’s popularity. If anything, his stature as a tribal leader grew. Over the years, he has defeated his opponents irrespective of the party. Both Congress and BJP have been working hard to make their way into the tribal belt. Since 2002 state polls, both parties have even nominated candidates from Vasava community, a sub group amongst Bhils. But neither party could win a seat in the areas of his stronghold.

The return of his former party members could once again give Chhotu Vasava enough heft to spell trouble for the BJP and Congress.