Gujarat the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be facing the assembly elections in Dec this year. Ahead of the polls both BJP and Congress have geared up to begin the election campaign.
The state has recently also been witnessing a lot changes in the political equations. After a Congress veteran Shakersinh Vagehla quit the party, Congress has been bearing the loss of its legislators. Meanwhile, BJP with the aim to get nothing less than victory in the polls is pretty much confident about its win. The party is in the mindset that with Narendra Modi as the national face representing the party getting votes will not be a tough task.
However, things are a little different in the state. Congress which was feeling all defeated and taken aback was once again refueled with energy when the Congress candidate Ahmed Patel after much drama won the Gujarat Rajya Sabha poll defeating the BJP Balwantsingh Rajput.
Apart from followers of BJP and Congress the third factor that may be important in the Gujarat Assembly polls is the support of the Patidars and the other backward classes. From past two years, the Patidars under the leadership of Hardik Patel have been demanding for quota benefits under the Other Backward Classes category. Recently the Patel led protestors have come down on roads openly expressing their distress with the ruling BJP in Gujarat under the leadership of Vijay Rupani.
Other than Hardik Patel another OBC leader Alpesh Thakor is also being prominently participating in the politics in Gujarat. Alpesh is a leader of the Thakor community which accounts for a fifth of the State’s 60-million-strong population. He is the founder of the Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe) Ekta Manch and Thakor Kshatriya Sena.
The Patidars consists of the 14% of the Gujarat population.
While Hardik Patel has been openly criticising against the BJP, the party had hoped to woo in Alpesh Thakor along with his supporters. But with the recent developments in the state, it seems like BJP has been disappointed on counting on support from Alpesh. Recently
BJP under the leadership of party president Amit Shah was to organize an Other Backward Classes conclave scheduled to be held in Phagvel village in Kheda district on Monday. But the meeting was canceled due to heavy rains. Alpeh Thakor was invited to attend the rally in order to gain the confidence and votes of the OBC. However, he denied the invitation, instead scheduled to hold his own public meeting on the same date near the venue around the same time as that of the BJP meeting was to be held.
This major development may be a reason for worry for the BJP as Amit Shah was counting on the votes of the backward classes with the help of Alpesh.
Alpesh Thakor came into the highlight when he opposed the Patidar agitation for reservation in government jobs and education two years ago in 2015. Shah has been planning to woo in the OBC votes and form a new social combination in Gujarat. Currently, Thakors are not openly in support any of the parties, it can be expected that the party may hold anyone’s hand who are willing to fulfill their demand.
As per the latest updates, Ishwar Parmar, who is Kheda district president of the OSS Ekta Manch and Thakur Kshatriya Sena accused that BJP was trying to force them to call off their meeting convened on the same day as that of the BJP meet. “For last few days, the BJP had been trying to pressurize us to postpone our public meeting. When we remained firm, the ruling party resorted to coercion,” he said.
He also said that the BJP even tried to stop them from holding the meeting through many means. They were forced to change their venue as just two days ahead of the meeting the local administration withdrew its permission of allowing Alpesh to organize the meetup at Town Hall of Kaparvanj. After the administration’s denial, the OSS forcefully changed their venue to Community Hall of the town.