BTP extends support to Congress in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan

Influential in the tribal-dominated regions of southern Rajasthan, party has sought assurance on its demands

The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), which has two members from Dungarpur district in the Rajasthan Assembly, on Tuesday announced its support to the candidates fielded by the ruling Congress in the Rajya Sabha elections. The BTP took the decision after meeting Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Udaipur, where Congress MLAs and Independents are staying at a resort.

After earlier announcing that it it would abstain from voting, the BTP had softened its stand two days ago by offering “conditional support” to the Congress. The party, which wields considerable influence in the tribal-dominated regions of southern Rajasthan, had sought an assurance on its demands, including the dropping of cases against tribal youths in the Kakri-Doongri violence of 2020, and appointments to a backlog of jobs.

BTP MLAs Rajkumar Roat and Ram Prasad, accompanied by some tribal leaders, discussed several issues with Mr. Gehlot “in a positive atmosphere” and put forth their demands while agreeing to support the Congress candidates, said sources in the Chief Minister’s Office. The two BTP legislators said they would stay at a place other than the resort till the June 10 polling.

Besides the MLAs representing Dungarpur’s Chorasi and Sagwara seats, tribal leaders who met Mr. Gehlot included Kantibhai Adivasi, Manilal Garasiya and Mohanlal Roat. The BTP, which was an ally of Congress, had in December 2020 severed ties with the ruling party and announced withdrawal of support to it over the issue of the latter blocking the election of a BTP-backed Independent candidate to the post of Zila Pramukh during the panchayat body polls.

With the BTP’s latest decision, the Congress has reached a comfortable position after securing an assurance of support from the 13 Independent MLAs as well as six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-turned-Congress MLAs, who had earlier depicted resentment, alleging that they were being ignored.

The steady growth of the BTP in Rajasthan’s tribal-dominated region after its victory over two seats in the 2018 Assembly election has posed a challenge to both the Congress and the BJP. The BTP has rapidly made inroads into the tribal belt, where the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a long time to establish themselves, with the BTP riding mainly on the planks of land and forest rights, local resources, and livelihoods for the tribal population.

The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), a former ally of the BJP having three MLAs, has announced that it would support BJP-backed Independent candidate Subhash Chandra. RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal said the party, which was not supporting either the Congress or the BJP, had decided to back the Independent while respecting the “dignity of democracy”.