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| Left tapping tribal votes inGujarat |
| Chowdhary, a well known lawyer in the past 25 years, says he has fought many cases to protect the land rights of adivasis.
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| INDIA
, 7-December-2007
0:59:38 AM |
| It's a rare attempt by a Left party at exploring political space in the adivasi belt of South Gujarat.
The Lok Sangharsh Morcha has fielded three tribal candidates. But what makes this party thinks, it work in this traditionally Congress vote bank? What are the triggers that may make Gujarat's tribals look for answers in Leftist ideology?
In an election meeting in an adivasi village in South Gujarat, Deepak Chowdhary, a candidate of Lok Sangharsh Morcha party claims to be influenced by Leftist ideology in a state, where the Left has rarely had any political presence.
Chowdhary, a well known lawyer in the past 25 years, says he has fought many cases to protect the land rights of adivasis.
''Since Independence, I have seen that no party has fought for the rights of the downtrodden, the adivasis. We want to make their voice heard,'' Deepak Chowdhary said.
Even though almost 15 per cent of Gujarat's population is tribal, Leftist ideology failed to take root here unlike in other parts of tribal India.
First, because of the strong influence of Gandhian activists. Then the Congress strategy of KHAM, a social coalition of Kshatriyas, Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims that assured the Congress a committed tribal vote bank.
But the riots of 2002 saw the tribal vote especially in Central Gujarat shift towards the BJP. Now, this time tribals say they feel betrayed by both parties on the crucial fight for rights over forest land.
They claim their land holdings have halved in the last 40 years grabbed by the government for various developmental schemes displacing them by lakhs.
In 1960s, Adivasi land holding was 97,000 hectares where as in 2007 it decreased to 42,000 hectares. And during 1960-2007 almost 33 lakh tribals have been displaced.
And so, Left oriented activist groups working in these areas see this as the right time to strike by making the switch from tribal activism to politics.
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