Heeras spur home-grown political headwinds in land of BJP, Congress

BHOPAL: Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) back in 2003 state assembly election threatened to upset status quo in electoral politics in much the same way as Samanya, Pichchra, Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj Sanstha (SAPAKS) and Jai Yuva

Adivasi

Shakti (JAYS), the two fledgling outfits - are doing so, now. The three homegrown political outfits may or may not have anything, except for one in common. Founder of all three are "Heera" (diamond) - Heera Singh Markam (GGP), Heeralal Trivedi (SAPAKS) and Heeralal Alawa (JAYS).


In 2003 state assembly election, by bagging 172 seats under the leadership of fiery leader of Uma Bharti and reducing the ruling Congress to 47 seats, the BJP was obviously a focal point. Around the same time, a new tribal political party GGP drew attention for making deep inroads in the eastern tribal belt of Mandla and Dindori and bagging three assembly seats. GGP, born out of social movement among Gond

tribals

of the area, was founded by a modest farmer - Heera Singh Markam - who talked of gram ganrajya (village republic), prosperity in villages, health and education facilities in villages and how urban-centric development was being carried out at cost of villages and, of course, Gondi pride, - had by then settled in Korba district of Chhattisgarh following bifurcation of

Madhya Pradesh

in 2000. GGP, in his absence, ran out of steam and poached by the BJP and the Congress, it broke into fragments till octogenarian leader was again called upon to take over reins of the party and bring it back on track. This is what Markam - a modest, but educated leader (a post-graduate and a law degree)- is now trying to do.

State government's stand over high court's decision declaring reservation in promotion unconstitutional and later Central government bringing in a law to undo a Supreme Court order to put certain safeguards in use of Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST almost instantly threw up SAPAKS - an outfit representing unreserved classes - with retired IAS officer Heeralal Trivedi helming the organisation. Strong SAPAKS rallies and protests over past few months have put both the mainstream parties - BJP and the Congress- on an alert. SAPAKS has announced to contest on all 230 assembly seats in the state and Trivedi along with his team is busy keeping his flock together and maintain SAPAKS movement momentum till assembly election in November.

Unlike Heera Singh Markam and Heeralal Trivedi, the third Heera (Heeralal Alawa) is young. A doctor by profession, he worked with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, till recently. In a matter of months, the outfit founded by him -JAYS - is making waves in tribal areas of the state, particularly in the western tribal belt.

JAYS is pressing for implementation of the panchayats extension in Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act. "JAYS shot to popularity by questioning what mainstream parties have done for tribals," said a political observer. JAYS, which would contest 47 seats reserved for the ST and another 80, where tribals have considerable population, is already giving sleepless nights to strategists of both the BJP and the Congress.