Ahirs united against BJP's conspiracy: Bhagwan Barad

Members of the Ahir community held a show of strength in Veraval on Sunday in protest of disqualification of Congress MLA and OBC leader Bhagwan Barad from the Gujarat Assembly. At the rally, Barad said the BJP has adopted a carrot and stick approach.

Addressing the rally, he said that MLAs who switched over to the saffron party were offered ministerial positions while those who resisted were being threatened.

He said his disqualification was a conspiracy of the BJP and the community was united to defeat this conspiracy. He said the Speaker had no right to disqualify him.

Barad, who represented the Talala seat in Gir-Somnath, was convicted by a Sutrapada court on March 1 in a 1995 illegal mining case and awarded jail sentence of two years and nine months. Following the conviction, Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi disqualified him from the Assembly. His conviction was later stayed by an upper court, which was recently set aside by the Gujarat High Court.

Barad has challenged the disqualification in HC. The EC recently announced by-election for Talala, Manavadar, Unjha, Jamnagar Rural and Dhrangadhra Legislative Assembly seats. The bypolls will be held on April 23, along with the Lok Sabha elections in the state. In the recent past, Congress MLAs from the other seats have switched over to the BJP. One of them, Jawahar Chavda, was made a Cabinet minister in the Rupani government.

On Sunday

Besides Barad, top Ahir leaders including former MP Vikram Madam and MLA Amrish Der and other prominent leaders and elders of the community shared the stage. The Ahir community has vowed that it will defeat the BJP if Barad's disqualification is not revoked immediately.

"The Ahirs constitute five per cent of Gujarat's population and our presence is strong in Saurashtra, besides several other pockets in South Gujarat. We have a strong presence in 11 districts including Jamnagar, Kutch, Junagadh, Somnath, Rajkot, Surat, Valsad, Vapi, Radhanpur. If the disqualification is not revoked, ever member of the Ahir community will work to defeat the BJP," said Madam, a former Congress MP and strong Ahir leader.

He said that the nearly 30 lakh-strong Ahir community in the state cannot be ignored. "The disqualification of a community leader has been made to weaken the community's political presence and cannot be tolerated."

Former Congress president Arjun Modhwadia said, "Disqualification of Bhagwanbhai Barad was unfortunate. The decision was taken on the instructions of the BJP. The Speaker has no right to disqualify an MLA. The very basis on which the decision was taken was wrong. It needs to be taken in consultation with the Election Commission. It is natural that Bhagwanbhai's supporters and friends were angry. This will have an impact on the Lok Sabha election as the people know how the Speaker and the state government have acted."

BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya said, "The decision on disqualifying Bhagwanbhai Barad has been taken by the court. It has been decided on an individual basis. It must not be politicised. The top leadership of the Ahir community, including Poonam Madam, Vasan Ahir, Mulu Bera and Jawahar Chavda, is with the BJP and so is the community."