Vadodara: Dipak Shrivastava, son of heavyweight BJP Waghodiya MLA Madhu Shrivastava, may consider himself a victim of the scheming by BJP to keep him out of polls, but it was strong evidence dug up by rivals that actually led to his ouster from the poll fray owing to the two-child norm.
Political circles were already abuzz with rumours that Shrivastav had three children in the run up to the ticket distribution. But few would have imagined that his MLA father had adopted one of his three children. Dipak kept denying that he was a father of three children on the ground that he legally had only two children.
Dipak now says that he was saying that he had only two children as his name was used as the father in the case of only two. “I stated this in my nomination papers too,” he said. Dipak has now decided that he will not get involved with the electioneering in ward 15 from where he was seeking a ticket. “I will work for BJP candidates in other constituencies,” he said. He had filed nomination as an independent after BJP denied him a ticket in line with the policy of not giving tickets to relatives of party leaders.
The adoption agreement between Dipak and his wife on one side and Madhu and his wife on the other reveals that it was Dipak’s second child –a daughter – that was adopted by Madhu by performing rituals on May 8, 2018 and was staying with Madhu since the same day. The adoption agreement was made on July 15, 2020 and registered with the Bapod sub-registrar on July 18, 2020.
The order cancelling nomination mentions that he had become the father of a boy on October 22, 2020. The boy was Dipak’s third child. On paper, Dipak is the father of a daughter born in 2012 and the son.
Sources said even if he had been granted a ticket by the BJP, rivals would have raised the issue.