Ex-Gujarat CM set to campaign for Congress in Gandhinagar civic polls slated for Oct 11

Shankersinh Vaghela joins Congress rally in Narmada. (Express photo)

EVEN AS talks regarding former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela joining the Congress almost a decade after quitting the party are at an “advanced stage”, the 86-year-old leader participated in its ‘Punah Van Adhikar Satyagraha’ campaign, aimed at supporting tribals’ rights over forest land in Khopi village of Sagbara taluka in Narmada district on Friday. This is the same village where tribals staged a sit-in protest in August fighting over rights to over 3000 acres of forest land.

Addressing the tribals, Vaghela said, “Those sitting in Gandhinagar and Delhi are enemies of reservation. We have to decide that in the 2027 (Gujarat) elections, we do not want this government. There are no basic facilities, such as education and health, for tribals even as malnutrition is the highest among tribals.”

Sources confirmed that Vaghela would also campaign for Congress in the coming Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) elections slated for October 11. They added that an announcement on Vaghela’s comeback to the Congress was likely to be made during Navratri.

Several tribal farmers and leaders, including Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Chavda and MLA Anant Patel, on Friday launched the ‘Punah Van Adhikar Satyagraha’ in Khopi village to demand legal rights and access to farming land.

Chavda announced that even as the second phase of the satyagrah began on Gandhi Jayanti, if the demands of tribals are not met, they would “march towards Gandhinagar.”

“If the BJP government does not act at the earliest for the jal, jungle, zameen rights of tribals, we will march towards Gandhinagar. It will be a protest of not only tribals… Every community will join and support them,” Chavda said.

He alleged that the state government’s move to bring in the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill was “a way to divert people’s attention from the core issues.”

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President Droupadi Murmu has given assent to the UCC bill,  the government announced on Friday.