FRA claims may not affect outcome in four ST seats despite long march

On Sunday, a state-wide association of tribal students in Nashik declared that they would exhort young tribals to vote against the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. “None of the BJP MPs from seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes spoke up on the high rate of rejection of FRA claims,” said Madan Pathwe of the Adivasi Vidyarthi-Yuvak Samiti. Four of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in state are reserved for ST candidates. All four — Nandurbar, Gadchiroli, Dindori and Palghar — are currently held by BJP.

“The MPs also did not speak up on other issues that have seen agitations in the past few years, including the decision to replace canteen meals in government tribal hostels with cash transfers to student residents. This affected over 58,000 tribals,” said Pathwe.

The Adivasi Vidyarthi-Yuvak Samiti is currently in discussions with other adivasi organisations in Palghar and Nandurbar to plan a roadmap for mobilising support for candidates they choose to support. “We are going to exhort people to select the None Of The Above (NOTA) option if necessary, but not vote in favour of the Sena-BJP.” In the Assembly elections in 2014, NOTA finished at third place in Maoist-hit Gadchiroli, ahead of the Congress.

However, workers across party lines conceded that the FRA issue, while affecting lakhs of tribals and certain to be a topic of wide discussion during campaigning, will ultimately not impact the election outcome in any of the four ST-reserved constituencies where local political dynamics will be the decisive factor.

For the Congress, the loss of Nandurbar in 2014 would still sting sharply, for not only did the party hold the seat without a break since 1967, but it was also the Congress’s favourite launchpad for various UPA showcase schemes.

“Largely due to social media, youth in Nandurbar feel decades of Congress rule brought them no development. For these boys always on social media, Modi is a big hero,” said Govardhan Munde, a zilla parishad teacher at Kinwat in Nanded district, and a tribal activist working on non-tribals using fake caste certificates to access ST reservation in jobs and higher education. The local MP is Heena Gavit, daughter of former NCP minister VIjaykumar Gavit, who joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 state election. Congress MLA KC Padavi is expected to contest to wrest the seat back.

In Dindori, while BJP MP Harischandra Chavan is completing his third consecutive term, all eyes are on Jeeva Pandu Gavit, state’s sole CPI(M) MLA, who represents nearby Kalvan-Surgana and was the biggest mobiliser for the tribals’ long march. The CPI(M) is yet to announce his candidature. Palghar, where late MP Chintamani Wanaga built up BJP, is now with Sena but will be contested by Wanaga’s son Srinivas, who lost a bypoll against BJP in May 2018 by less than 30,000 votes.