Meet the Vasavas: AAP Bharuch candidate’s frontline fighters are his two wives (2024)

There are other Vasavas in the race as well, including Chaitar’s former mentor Chhotu Vasava’s younger son Dilip (Bharat Adivasi Party). Chhotu’s elder son, Mahesh, who was once Bharatiya Tribal Party president, is in the BJP now. The AIMIM has also declared its intention to contest from the seat.

The entry of Dilip Vasava is likely to hurt Chaitar. However, not if his wives Shakuntaka, 34, and Varsha, 30, both of whom were government officials before they resigned in the 2022 Assembly polls to give Chaitar’s poll bid a push, have their way.

In most tribal communities of Gujarat, polygamy is an accepted social practice; Scheduled Tribes are exempted from provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act. While Chaitar and Shakuntala got married 15 years ago, he and Varsha wed two years later. All of them, with their respective children, live together.

The three have been conscious about presenting a joint front long before the election heat started, with Varsha representing Chaitar at a rally in January at Netrang tehsil, which was attended by top AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann. Chaitar and Shakuntala were in judicial custody at the time over an alleged case of assaulting forest officials, and were charged with “extortion”, “criminal intimidation”, “rioting with a deadly weapon”, and similar charges.

At the rally, Varsha read out a letter from Chaitar calling the charges a bid “to break my morale”. “They have put others behind bars with me, including my wife Shakuntala… But I will be back among you soon,” the letter said.

The next month, Chaitar and Shakuntala got out of custody, but the AAP MLA was barred from entering his home district of Narmada, a part of which falls under the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat. So while Chaitar campaigns in the rest of Bharuch, Shakuntala and Varsha are going door to door, particularly in his Dediapada Assembly constituency, which is also out of bounds for him.

Asking people to choose “your beloved Chaitarbhai”, Shakuntala tells voters: “He has been fighting for the rights of tribals to forest lands, and for education, healthcare and employment in their areas. For this, he has been booked in false cases by the BJP government and prohibited from entering Narmada district… although his voters elected him as MLA by a margin of over 1 lakh votes.”

Shakuntala has some political experience under her belt, as a JD(U) member of the Narmada district panchayat since 2015. While in government, she worked with the Development Support Agency, part of the Tribal Development Department. Varsha, a trained nurse, used to work at a government health unit in Dediapada, and had to quickly learn the political ropes after Shakuntala and Chaitar were arrested.

Making their rounds, Shakuntala and Varsha greet tribals with a “Jai Johar”, touch the feet of elderly voters and converse confidently in the local dialect, asking people to make “the right choice” for the future of their children and warning them that the BJP is “anti-tribal”, “against the progress of tribals” and will take away their lands.

As they cover large parts of the rural constituency on foot, crossing ‘dark zones’ with no Net connectivity and tackling a mountainous terrain, a group of women follow them wearing yellow AAP scarves and carrying brooms, the party’s election symbol.

Standing out in their saris draped the non-Gujarati way, unlike the others, Shakuntala and Varsha are a careful mix of the old and new – a fact their audience appreciates. Some assure the two that “things will soon be set right”.

Varsha says they have re-organised their daily schedule around the poll grind. “After sending the children to school and finishing household chores quickly, we leave for the campaign, ensuring we cover about seven villages per day.” While Shakuntala has a son, Varsha has two children.

The days tend to be long as, because of the heat, public gatherings are being held after sunset. “Yesterday, we returned home around 3 am and then had our dinner. It is tough but necessary,” says Varsha.

Shakuntala adds that Chaitar trusts them with planning the campaign, while the Congress too has been pitching in. “With the help of supporters, we prepare a map for the villages we will visit. Chaitarbhai tells us if specific action has to be taken. Otherwise, he has confidence that the two of us can manage on our own.”

Varsha says the voters, who have been “waiting to see Chaitar in person”, get consolation from seeing the two of them as well as from his photographs on the campaign material. The life-size cutouts of Chaitar are garlanded at AAP public events.

Drawing a parallel with AAP chief Kejriwal, Varsha says, “The BJP has entangled Chaitar in a false case, just like Arvindji has been arrested… The cut-outs give voters hope that he will be back in their midst, maybe even as MP.”

As Varsha says they have been looking after works being done using Chaitar’s MLA funds, Shakuntala intervenes, “Look at our area… BJP MP Mansukh Vasava, who is also our (Chaitar’s) distant maternal uncle, has been in power for 30 years but he has not built a single school. There are no teachers in primary schools, no staff at health units… The government is conspiring to acquire more lands in the name of tourist sanctuaries… The gullible tribal population is unaware that as soon as elections conclude, they will be evicted.”

About Chaitar being called a “traitor” by Mahesh Vasava. Varsha says: “Who are they (Chhotu Vasava and sons) to call Chaitarbhai a traitor? It was Chaitarbhai who was cheated (in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls), when he was denied a BTP ticket from Dediapada, and so had to join the AAP. Chhotubhai is our elder and we respect him, but he should have blessed Chaitarbhai in the larger interest of the tribal community, instead of pitting his son against us… As for Maheshbhai joining the BJP, he must answer how he has joined a party against which he pitched himself as a tribal messiah.”