They live on the fringes of the state, literally, but Gujarat’s tribal population has been at the state’s political centre since Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s massive rally at Devgadh Baria in Dahod in January this year.

Seeing Sonia’s success, the BJP government responded with a

Rs 15,000-cr Van Bandhu package in April 2007 to woo the Scheduled Tribe (ST) voters. And now Chief Minister Narendra Modi has launched a Rath Yatra through Panchmahals and Dahod. The road show, as it’s called, rolled out on December 5 following internal BJP reports that the party was faring poorly in these tribal districts.

Though a traditional Congress bastion—having been an integral part of the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, and Muslim) combination—the Hindutva wave in 2002 won over the tribals for the BJP. Of the 26 reserved ST seats in the state that run along its eastern border with Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the BJP cornered 14 in 2002. In 1998, they had got only eight.

The imprint of Godhra on the result was clear: the BJP increased its vote share from 34.01 per cent in 1998 to 53.97 per cent in the tribal seats that come under riot-affected central Gujarat region. The Congress registered a fall from 51.38 in 1998 to 34.86 in 2002.

It remains to be seen how the parties fare in an election minus the emotionally charged environment. The Congress is confident that its traditional support base will be back with it. The party shows the reversal in 2004 as proof of tribals returning to its fold. Of the eight Lok Sabha seats that have sizeable tribal votes, five came to the Congress: Valsad, Mandvi, Chotaudepur, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha.

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