Mangrola said he would formally join the SP in a public meeting at Ankleshwar in the presence of party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh. A host of other leaders, including Abu Asim Azmi, are also expected to attend the function.

So far, SP’s influence is limited to Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and parts of Mumbai. Although the party has been active in the state for quite some time, it has not grown much due to the deep-rooted ‘two party system’ in Gujarat. Mangrola’s move is likely to strengthen the party in the state, going by the popularity of the young leader.

The leader has vowed to give a new direction to state politics by creating a ‘Third Force’. He aims to mobilise the adivasis to carve out a new political alternative in the state. He said the adivasis, owing to educational awareness in the last two decades, have become somewhat conscious of their rights and are also nursing political ambitions.

“I want to make them politically aware. They should join SP to achieve their ambitions,” he told Newsline.

The educated tribals, he said, are fed up of both the BJP and the Congress, but do not have anyone to lead them. He expressed the hope to get the support of Muslims for his party as well given the ‘indifference’ of the minority community towards the Congress.

He said that with the Congress lying low and not doing enough as the Opposition party in the state, SP can fill the ‘political vacuum’.

State SP president Surendra Yadav, meanwhile, said that many leaders from the Congress as well as other parties are also likely to join the SP at the Ankleshwar meet.

Mangrola, who began his political career as Yuva Janata Dal vice-president in 1989, was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1994 as a BJP nominee.

He did it by engineering a split among Congress legislators.

He quit the RS seat in 1996 to express solidarity with Shankersinh Vaghela after the latter created a split in the BJP to form his own government in the state.