Meena family feud, ‘tribal first’ calls to matter big in Pratapgarh

For the past 40 years, electoral politics in Pratapgarh assembly constituency has been circling around the Meena family of AmbamataGyaspur village. Six-term BJP legislator and former tribal affairs minister Nandlal Meena suffered a defeat from his cousin and Congress leader Ramlal Meena in 2018.

Nandlal, who BJP gives credit for introducing the saffron party in the district’s tribal areas, terms Ramlal as a “backstabber” for allegedly using his network against him. Ramlal disagrees and explains why.

“I was a dedicated BJP worker. The dispute arose when Nandlal started pushing his son in the 2013 assembly elections,” said Ramlal to TOI. “I joined my political guru Kirori Lal Meena’s party, NPP, in 2013 to contest the polls. I was defeated, but I never stopped working for the people. Congress offered me a ticket from the seat in 2018, and I won,” he added.

The Dhariyawad seat was won by BJP candidate Goutam Meena in 2018, but he died two years later due to Covidrelated complications. In the ensuing by-poll, Congress candidate Nagraj Meena won the seat. The by-poll was much in the news due to independent candidate Thawar Chand being supported by BTP MLAs Rajkumar Roat and Ram Prasad Dindor.

It was this by-poll that saw the entry of hardcore tribalcentric politics in the region as a candidate promised a separate ‘Bhil Pradesh’ state during the campaigns for the first time. “The main political parties—Congress and BJP—never took an extreme stance like BTP did. No wonder that the BTP-supported candidate lost the by-polls,” said Riyaz Ahmed, a resident of Pratapgarh. As the November 25 polls near, political equations in the district look changed. The tribal people’s sociocultural and political organisations have launched a ‘Tribal First’ campaign. BJP and Congress are yet to speak up over the growing talk about the ideology of ‘Tribal First’ in the district.