The veteran leader Shankersinh Vaghela was once described as a leader who has visited all 18,000 villages of Gujarat and whose grassroots connections were unmatched by any other politicians of Gujarat. However, his personal ambition caused many ups and downs, both in his political career and in the politics of Gujarat.&nbsp; Growing up in and around Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh&rsquo;s shakhas, he imbibed the RSS ideology as a youngster. In his early days in politics, it was not uncommon to see &ldquo;Bapu&rdquo; and his Rajdoot bike in the most remote of Gujarat&rsquo;s villages.&nbsp; But things changed as his political clout grew. When he arrived at the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Khanpur, Ahmedabad, after being elected to the Rajya Sabha in the 1980s, his swagger shocked many.&nbsp; Long gone was the NCC cadet of yore. In his place stood someone clearly familiar with luxury. Yet, not everyone was surprised. &ldquo;Bapu&rdquo; had long been a fan of the good things in life--this was hardly news to those who knew him well.&nbsp; When VP Singh resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi government, the Janata Party, Left and BJP led the movement against the Congress. Allegations of the Bofors scam shone the highlight on the Janata Party and the BJP, both of which began to rise in Gujarat politics. As BJP&rsquo;s state unit chief at the time, Bapu also began to gain the attention of the media and the public. In 1995, when the BJP single-handedly formed the state government, Vaghela assumed that he was the natural choice for BJP Legislative Party leader and the party&rsquo;s first chief minister in Gujarat.&nbsp; But that was not to be.&nbsp; Shattered by the BJP&rsquo;s decision to &ldquo;promote&rdquo; Keshubhai Patel in his stead, Bapu led a revolt in the party, compelling the party high command to replace Patel with Suresh Mehta.&nbsp; This didn&rsquo;t work for Vaghela either.&nbsp; He wait a year and led another revolt--the party&rsquo;s biggest--and brought down the government with assistance from the Congress. The rebel BJP MLAs from Vaghela&rsquo;s faction formed a new government in 1996, which lasted for one year.&nbsp; Then he formed a regional party, the Rashtriya Janta Party (RJP), which badly lost in the 1998 assembly election.&nbsp; He ran the party for a few more years, and eventually merged the RJP with the Congress. He made the most of this association, benefiting politically from having the Congress party at the Centre.&nbsp; When Narendra Modi took charge as prime minister in 2014, Vaghela saw the writing on the wall. He jumped ship from the Congress just before the 2017 assembly elections, to launch a regional party called the Jan Vikalp Morcha (JVM).&nbsp; Since the JVM was not registered with the Election Commission of India, Vaghela fielded 95 candidates under the banner of the All India Hindustan Congress Party--a gamble that failed miserably. JVM failed to garner even 1% of votes, and all his candidates lost their deposits.&nbsp; Embodying the &ldquo;Grass is greener on the other side&rdquo; philosophy, Vaghela even spent a short with the Nationalst Congress Party (NCP) before resigning from there as well.&nbsp; On the eve of 2022 elections, Bapu launched the Praja Shakti Democratic Party (PSDP), fully intending to contest assembly elections but changed his mind at the last minute.&nbsp; Now, on November 20, he has announced plans to revive the PSDP, and has called a meeting of his supporters at his residence on November 22 to gauge the ground reality. While the next Assembly elections in Gujarat are not due to occur until 2027, elections to Panchayats and civic bodies are around the corner, leading to speculations that Vaghela is training his sights on those.

Shankersinh Vaghela addressing media  (file photo)

Shankersinh Vaghela may one day make history, either for launching multiple political parties or for frequently joining and resigning from them.

Vaghela to Revive Party: Are Polls Close?

Shankersinh Vaghela may one day make history, either for launching multiple political parties or for frequently joining and resigning from them.

November 20, 2024 | 17:30 IST