Mahesh Vasava, 55, the two-time MLA from the Dediapada constituency in Narmada district of Gujarat, is the son of Chhotubhai Vasava, 78, a heavyweight tribal chief and seven-time MLA from Jhagadia. Mahesh can also be the President of the Bharatiya Tribal Social gathering (BTP), which has just lately been within the information for its untimely alliance break-up with the Aam Aadmi Social gathering.
Mahesh, who’s gearing as much as contest the forthcoming Meeting polls from the Dediapada seat for a 3rd time period, is seen because the heir of Chhotubhai’s legacy, whilst his two different brothers are stated to be harbouring political ambitions. Together with the daddy, Mahesh is a distinguished face within the politics of south Gujarat, significantly in Bharuch and Narmada districts, the place the social gathering has a powerful presence. Nonetheless, Mahesh has been eyeing a powerful alliance associate to take forward the ‘aspirations’ of the tribal social gathering that had gained two seats—of Chhotubhai and Mahesh—out of the six it contested in its maiden election in 2017.
Mahesh was instrumental in forming the BTP—a political social gathering that was born out of the Bhilistan Tiger Sena motion, which had been advocating for a separate tribal state of Bhilistan from elements of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Mahesh floated the BTP after the JD(U) break up in 2017, and the faction led by Sharad Yadav—who the Vasavas are near—misplaced its petition, staking declare to the election image of the social gathering. He concurrently registered BTP with the Election Fee.
Though the selections of the BTP are ruled by the phrase of its patriarch Chhotubhai, it’s Mahesh who has been assembly leaders of different events for potential alliances. In April this yr, Mahesh travelled to New Delhi to satisfy AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal for a proposed alliance in Gujarat. Afterwards in Might, Kejriwal visited the Vasavas’ residence in Chanderiya of Bharuch, the place the 2 events introduced an alliance. This was later called-off by the Vasavas, citing “sidelining” and “dishonest” by AAP, which has fielded a minimum of two former BTP leaders from each the tribal Meeting seats in Narmada.
Beforehand, Mahesh was instrumental in forging an alliance with AIMIM for the native physique polls, which had turned detrimental for the social gathering. Whereas Mahesh goes forward with the BTP contesting the polls alone, the social gathering is but to announce any candidates. In an try and develop the BTP’s footprint throughout the nation, he has been extensively campaigning in varied elections in Rajasthan—the place the social gathering has two MLAs—and in addition in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Simply a few weeks earlier than calling off the alliance with AAP, Mahesh, in his capability as an MLA, had shared the dais with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, at an occasion of the tribal welfare and forest division in Dediapada.
Mahesh, a farmer, is a college passout. He started his political profession as a member of the Bharuch district panchayat in 1996, which he contested on a JD(U) ticket. 5 years later, in 2002, he contested the 2002 Gujarat Meeting polls from Dediapada and gained with 38,665 votes, forsaking candidates of the BJP, the Congress and the NCP. Mahesh subsequently misplaced the 2007 election to Congress’s Amarsinh Vasava by a margin of twenty-two,379 votes. In 2012, the Dediapada seat was bagged by BJP’s Motilal Vasava by over 56,000 votes, leaving JD(U)’s Mahesh behind.
As a candidate of the Congress-BTP alliance in 2017, Mahesh got here again to defeat Motilal Vasava of the BJP for the Dediapada Meeting seat by 21,751 votes, and earned his second time period as MLA. Presently, he’s additionally the vice-chairman of Bharuch Dudhdhara dairy, which has a BJP-majority board.
Mahesh has 24 legal circumstances registered towards him since 1991. Of those, he and his two brothers have been convicted and sentenced to 3 years rigorous imprisonment in an attempt-to-murder case by the Ankleshwar courtroom in 2016, regardless of the sufferer turning hostile in the course of the trial. Nonetheless, the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom granted Mahesh bail later the identical yr. An attraction towards the conviction continues to be pending earlier than the HC.
Whereas Mahesh continues to get pleasure from important native on-ground assist in Bharuch and Narmada districts, there’s trigger for fear as there isn’t a BTP-Congress alliance as in 2017, whereas the BJP and AAP are able to discipline candidates from Dediapada. Though the BTP chief maintains that the BJP’s success within the February 2021 native physique polls is because of “tampered EVM machines”, it could actually’t be ignored that in Dediapada taluka panchayat, the place the JD(U) held 12 seats until 2015, the BTP got here down to 2 in 2021, however the truth that the BTP chief is the Dediapada MLA.
