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By Girija Godbole and Bhaskar Vira Medha Patkar and Aruna Roy aren't the only activists who have made the difficult decision to step into the political arena. Last year in Madhya Pradesh, mass-based tribal organisations or sangathans decided to contest the assembly elections. Now the Samajwadi Jan Parishad is getting ready to field some candidates for the Lok Sabha election in MP, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra
 As mainstream political parties get busy forming pre-election alliances and coalitions, an alternative politics is emerging in some tribal areas of the country. Mass-based tribal organisations, or sangathans , have decided to enter the electoral fray. This is a significant step, since it signals the politicisation of movements that have been struggling for the rights of poor and marginalised sections of rural society, but have so far chosen to remain outside the mainstream political process.
In the elections to the Madhya Pradesh assembly late last year, members of sangathans contested in four constituencies under the banner of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad (SWJP). The SWJP was formed in 1995, and believes that it is primarily the responsibility of the government to provide all citizens their basic entitlements, such as employment, food, shelter, electricity, water, education, and health facilities. It feels that external forces and multilateral institutions should not dictate government policies. SWJP supports a decentralised, alternative and equitable model of development. It protests against the 'false' globalisation in which the rich and powerful are benefiting at the expense of the poor and marginalised. Four candidates of the SWJP contested the recent state legislative assembly elections. Fagram, who has been active with the Kisan Adivasi Sangthan (KAS) and Shamim Modi, one of the founder-members of the Shramik Adivasi Sangathan (SAS) contested the elections from Itarsi and Harda constituencies respectively. Mangal Singh, a local tribal working with SAS and Ajay Khare who has been associated with the Nari Chetana Manch contested from Ghoda Dongri and Rewa constituencies respectively. All these candidates have been fighting for the cause of tribals and other marginalised communities through s angathans for the last few years. The decision to contest the elections was not easy. For many years, these organisations had stayed away from electoral politics, preferring to critique the system from the outside. But, as Shamim Modi put it during a recent conversation: "The thought process that led to our entry into politics was based on the recognition that for the last eight years we have been leading dharnas, morchas and rallies on a range of issues. But, as soon as the elections come around, the support that we have created on these issues gets fragmented and taken over by the mainstream political process. In fact, we feel that we were creating a forum, which the mainstream parties are simply taking over. So, all the power that we had created from the movement was being capitalised by the mainstream parties. This is when we realised that the politicisation of our support was very necessary." Anurag Modi, her husband and co-worker in the sangathan , argues that it is the democratic process itself which demands participation from those who are practising an alternative strategy at the grassroots. He says: "We believe in the democratic system. Then how will people get empowered until we enter politics? You cannot stay away from politics and expect it to be clean at the same time. How will the poor govern unless there is a politics that reflects their priorities?" He cites the example of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA): "NBA has created an excellent mass movement, focusing on development issues. But despite this, there was very little effect on people's political thinking, because the issues did not become electorally significant. Even people who were threatened with drowning voted for the parties that were constructing the dam. How many votes were cast against the dam? Votes were either in favour of the Congress or the BJP, and both these parties are for the dam." While the sangathans recognise that their main activity is raising awareness among the poor and marginalised rural communities, they have become conscious that a key part of this is also raising political awareness. To this end, it is impossible to stay out of the electoral process. Although many of the sangathan leaders can choose to stay non-political, especially if they are not locally rooted, the people whom they work with have to confront politics in their everyday life and cannot insulate themselves from its influences. When elections come around, people need political options that reflect their own priorities, especially the issues of water, forests and land ( jal, jangal, zamin ) that are core issues for rural livelihoods. The mainstream parties tend to co-opt these issues into their broader strategies, so it is important for the sangathans to enter the political fray to ensure that these issues remain central during the election period. The strength of the sangathans is their mass support base. This link between the movement (the sangathan ) and the party (SWJP) is a key aspect of their political strategy. Successful political parties have always relied on the mobilisation efforts of mass-based activists. This was true of the Congress after Independence (which relied on the support created during the freedom movement), and is true of the BJP, which is crucially dependent on the workers and activists of the broader Sangh Parivar . The sangathan -SWJP link offers the same combination of mass-based organisations at the grassroots working symbiotically to influence the agenda and electoral activity of a national political party. In the recently concluded assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the SWJP was unable to translate its mass support into actual seats. Without any big budgets, the four candidates managed to reach out to the voters travelling by public transport or in a battered jeep on the pot-holed roads of the state. As the SWJP believes in involving the common people in its work, funds were collected by asking supporters to contribute one rupee towards its electoral expenses. At meetings, volunteers moved in the crowd with boxes to collect contributions. Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, SWJP founder Kishan Patnaik and Yogendra Yadav, the renowned political analyst, addressed public rallies canvassing for the candidates. Though the response to these rallies and public meetings was encouraging, SWJP did not have any realistic hopes of actually winning from any of the four constituencies. Fagram and Shamim managed to get more than 9,000 and 3,000 votes in Itarsi and Harda constituency respectively while the other two candidates Mangal Singh and Ajay Khare got 2,712 and 789 votes respectively. Shamim and Anurag Modi are aware that electoral success is not likely in the short term. But, for Shamim, what was most significant was that some of these 3,000-odd votes included people who voted for her from Harda town itself, which is a typical district town in Madhya Pradesh. For a candidate whose core agenda focused on the needs of the rural poor, it was particularly satisfying to find support within the urban population as well. Encouraged by the response that it has received, the SWJP is now intending to contest the Lok Sabha elections from two constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, Hoshangabad and Betul. It will also put up candidates in the state elections in Orissa, as well as for Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and West Bengal. The SWJP is part of a broader political formation that has been created by a number of people's movements, called the People's Political Front (PPF). Major leaders, such as Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy and Thomas Kocherry, are part of the PPF, and are expected to play a prominent role in the forthcoming national elections. For decades a large section of India society, both rural and urban, has been disillusioned with mainstream politics and has decided to stay away. The entry of activist leaders into the fray is significant of a new determination to make an impact on the direction the development of India is taking. The need for alternative political options has never been greater, and the entry of sangathans into the political process is one step towards broadening the choice that is on offer to the Indian voter. (Girija Godbole is Project Co-ordinator of the Cambridge-Harda Project on Incorporating Stakeholder Perceptions in Participatory Forest Management. Bhaskar Vira is University Lecturer in Environment and Development and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, UK.) Infochange News and Features, March 2004
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