Gujarat polls: Bharatiya Tribal Party announces candidates for 12 seats

The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) on Sunday announced its first list of candidates for 12 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat, including nine Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seats.

BTP's Gujarat president Ramesh Vasava said the party will field its candidates on all the 27 ST-reserved seats across the state for the next month's elections.

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The party had won two seats in the 2017 polls in the state.

Apart from nine ST-reserved seats for which it declared the candidates, the BTP also announced its nominees for Karjan, Jambusar and Olpad, the seats for general category candidates.

The remaining nine seats are - Bhiloda, Jhalod, Dahod, Sankheda, Nandod, Vyara, Nizar, Dang and Dharampur.

"Apart from 27 tribal-reserved seats, we will also field our candidates on seats having 30 to 40 per cent tribal voters, such as Ankleshwar and Olpad," Vasava said.

At present, the BTP has two seats in Gujarat Assembly - Jhagadia in Bharuch and Dediapada in Narmada district. While BTP's founder Chhotu Vasava represents Jhagadia Assembly segment, his son and BTP's national president Mahesh Vasava represent Dediapada.

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Recently, Chhotu Vasava had ended its short-lived pre-poll alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat.

Though the election is round the corner, he has not opened his cards yet about any possibility of seat-sharing agreement with the Congress. Elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases - on December 1 and 5.

As per the 2011 census, there were 89.17 lakh tribals in Gujarat, around 15 per cent of its total population. The members of the community are largely spread across 14 eastern districts of the state. The tribal population is concentrated in 48 talukas.