New Delhi: When Bhupendra Patel was chosen Gujarat Chief Minister last year, in what was widely believed to be an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to beat the anti-incumbency sentiments against the Vijay Rupani government in the state, one of the reasons cited by party leaders was his highest victory margin among all MLAs in the assembly elections. Patel had contested the 2017 assembly elections in the state from the Ghatoldia constituency and won 217000 votes.
The other was his image of being a low-profile Patidar leader.
Cut to 2022, and Kunvarjibhai Narsinhbhai Halpati — a leader from one of the poorest of tribal sects in Gujarat according to BJP sources, the Halpatis — made it to Patel’s ministry as the Gujarat CM started his second tenure in office Monday, ostensibly because of his feat of winning the Mandvi assembly seat in Surat district, which the BJP had never won since the state was formed in 1960.
The other reason, sources in the party cited, for Halpati’s inclusion in the ministry was that he represented the “poor tribal Halpati community”. Halpati was sworn in as a minister of state (MoS) for tribal affairs Monday.
“Halpatis are the poorest among tribals (in the state), and when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Gujarat’s Chief Minister (between 2001 and 2014), he had initiated the ‘gram guru’ scheme for tribals, to construct houses for them,” said Janak Bhai Patel, vice president of the Gujarat unit of the BJP.
Janak Bhai added: “Since Halpati won this seat for the first time for the BJP, the party rewarded him by inducting the tribal leader from the poorest community to empower them. Three of the five seats where BJP has won for the first time are from the tribal belt.”
These include Jhagadia and Vyara, in addition to Mandvi.
“In Jhagadia, the BJP’s Ritesh Vasava defeated the Bharatiya Tribal Party’s (BTP) Chhotubhai Vasava. Chhotubhai had won the seat seven times previously and before that, the Congress held it between 1962 and 1985. The BJP had never won this seat before,” said Janak Bhai.
In Vyara, another seat that the Congress has been winning since the first Gujarat assembly election in 1962, this time BJP candidate Mohan Kankani emerged victorious.
The party also won the Borsad and Mahuda seats for the first time, with Raman Solanki and Sanjaysinh Mahida, defeating the Congress’ Rajendra Singh Parmar and Inder Singh Parmar, respectively.
Halpati was, however, the only among these five winning MLAs to get a ministerial berth.
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The rise of Halpati
Once considered close to Congress leader Tushar Choudhary, whose father was Congress leader and former Gujarat Chief Minister Amarsinh Chaudhary, Kunvarjibhai Halpati won his first election from Bardoli in 2007 on a Congress ticket.
It is widely believed that Halpati had got the ticket because of Tushar Choudhary. In 2012, however, the Bardoli seat was reserved for scheduled castes candidates, so Halpati sought a ticket from Gandevi. After being denied, he joined the BJP in 2013 and was made chairman of the state tribal development board.
He sought a ticket from Mandvi in the 2017 elections, but according to party sources, another tribal leader, Ganpatsinh Vestabhai Vasava, who had been a cabinet minister in the Rupani government, ensured that the ticket didn’t go to Halpati.
Halpati went on to file his nomination as an independent candidate from Mangol and Mandvi, but lost in both seats.
He later returned to the BJP and started cultivating his relationship with C.R.Patil, president of the BJP’s Gujarat unit, said the sources.
Now, following his defeating of sitting Congress MLA Anand Choudhary from Mandvi, Halpati has managed to get an MoS seat.
“BJP has won 24 of 27 reserved seats, which is phenomenal. Party has to respect that mandate. Congress has done tremendous performance in that tribal region, but owing to poor tribal outreach, we have got success in the tribal belt. Party has respected mandate and included one (tribal) cabinet and one state minister in the ministry,” said a party leader.
The Congress had consistently won Mandvi from 1962 to 2017. In 1975, the name of the place was changed to Sangrah, but it was changed back to Mandvi in 2012.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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