Ending scope for alliance, BAP announces candidate for Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan

Bharat Adivasi Party's Rajkumar Roat to contest Lok Sabha election in Banswara-Dungarpur, challenging Congress and BJP in Rajasthan.

The Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), which has emerged as a force to reckon with in the tribal-dominated districts in southern Rajasthan, has announced its founder-member and Chorasi MLA Rajkumar Roat as its candidate from Banswara-Dungarpur seat in the Lok Sabha election. Mr. Roat is one of the three BAP MLAs who won the State Assembly election last year.

Mr. Roat’s candidature, which will make the Lok Sabha contest triangular, has effectively ended the scope for the BAP’s alliance with the Opposition Congress in Rajasthan. The Congress is reportedly in talks with the regional parties in the State for an alliance as well as their induction into the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance bloc.

While the Congress is yet to announce its candidate for Banswara-Dungarpur, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Congress turncoat and former Minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya in the constituency. The emergence of Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), followed by the BAP, has posed a challenge to both the Congress and the BJP in Banswara, Udaipur, Dungarpur and Pratapgarh districts.

The BAP came up on the electoral scene in the State in 2023, winning three Assembly seats in Banswara and Dungarpur districts. The party emerged as a splinter group from the Gujarat-based BTP, with most of its leaders having been associated with the BTP. The BTP had won two seats in the 2018 Assembly election.

Mr. Roat, a two-time MLA, is known for his strong views on the rights of tribal people in the Tribal Sub-Plan area and reservation for the tribal communities. His victory margin of 69,166 votes at the Chorasi Assembly seat was among the largest in the State in the 2023 election.

BAP national president Mohan Lal Roat said the party had taken the decision to field Mr. Rajkumar Road after a referendum at a meeting of its social and political wings, in which the majority of the participants supported him. Mr. Roat has expressed gratitude to the party’s office-bearers and workers for reposing confidence in him.

The BAP’s support base has been growing in southern Rajasthan because of its emphasis on the tribal identity, demand for a separate State for the tribal Bhil community and the promise for 75% reservation for the tribal population in education and jobs. Both the Congress and the BJP have been unable to match the BAP on these issues.