The BJP wants an Opposition-free Gujarat. But some are putting up a fight

The first phone call from the Bharatiya Janata Party came four days after he won the Assembly election on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket. “I was at the temple of our kul devi” – the goddess of our clan – “offering my gratitude, when their state leader called on my mobile,” Chaitar Vasava recalled.

One of AAP’s five winning candidates in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls, Vasava, then 34, had been elected from Dediapada, an Adivasi-majority constituency in the state’s hilly southern region. There was no ostensible reason for the BJP to call him. The party had swept the Assembly elections held in December 2022, winning 156 of the 182 seats, the highest ever tally for any party in the state’s history. It did not need the support of outside MLAs.

And yet, Vasava claimed, the BJP tried hard to get him to cross over.

“BJP MLAs from this area who are known to me personally said ‘Come and meet our leader,’” he said. “I went, because the BJP is the ruling party and as an MLA, I need to get work done for my constituents.”

Vasava claimed the BJP state leader told him: “You resign as MLA, we will give you a ticket to contest.” When Vasava...

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