On March 11, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) met former Gujarat CM Shankarsinh Vaghela, the man who pulled off the biggest coup in the state with the help of Congress when he brought down BJP government in 1996.
Yadav was on a Gujarat tour amidst civic elections in Uttar Pradesh. Though no details of the meeting are public, it is speculated that Yadav is trying for a third front for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Reports suggest that Akhilesh may also attend a wedding ceremony at Vaghela’s house. Vaghela had earlier met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 10 and invited him to the reception of his grandson’s wedding ceremony, scheduled for March 12.
Notably, SP has been trying to expand its presence outside UP for a long time. The party has marked its presence, though at a very small scale, in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat. Success, however, in these states is still a far-away dream for the party, while it stays out of power at its home ground, UP, since 2017.
The Khajuraho Kaand of Gujarat politics
After the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya in December 1992, there was a saffron undercurrent in Gujarat. In 1995, BJP won the Gujarat elections and secured 121 seats out of 182 Assembly seats. Keshubhai Patel was elected as the Chief Minister. Vaghela, who was considered the ‘real architect’ of the victory, felt left out in the cabinet.
In September 1995, Keshubhai was on a trip to the US when Vaghela took his supporting MLAs to his village in Casan. He managed to get the support of 55 MLAs. They were then shifted to Charda village, where Congress supporter Haribhai Chaudhary lived.
The rebel MLAs were shifted to Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. Top BJP leadership, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, tried to talk to Vaghela, but he put a condition to exile Narendra Modi from Gujarat. Later, Keshubhai was removed from the CM post, and Vaghela-loyalist Suresh Mehta became the CM. In 1996, Vaghela was expelled from the party. He formed his own party and formed a government with Congress’s support from the outside. However, the government did not last even a year. By the end of 1998, his party was merged with Congress.
