Gujarat OBC leader to join Cong
Alpesh announces decision after talks with Rahul; party confident of getting Hardik on board, talks on with Jignesh
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday received a shot in the arm ahead of the year-end Gujarat polls after Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Alpesh Thakor announced that he will join the opposition party on Monday.
Thirty-nine-year-old Thakor, who heads the OBC/ST/SC Ekta Manch and is also the founder of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena (GKTS), made the announcement after meeting Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.
Confident of securing the support of 24-year-old Patidar leader Hardik Patel, the Congress was also trying to get Dalit activist and lawyer Jignesh Mevani on board.
“Rahul Gandhi will take part in our rally on October 23 and I will join the Congress party,” Thakor told reporters after the meeting, which took place a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit his home state.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, party general secretary in-charge of Gujarat Ashok Gehlot, Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and other senior state leaders also attended the crucial meeting.
Thakor’s decision to side with the Congress is likely to boost the grand-old party’s poll prospects in the BJP-ruled state, where it has been out of power for the past 22 years.
The OBC leader had earlier ruled out the possibility of extending support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and stated that the people of Gujarat had only two options – either to vote for BJP or Congress.
His organisations have already carried out booth management exercise in all the 182 assembly constituencies.
EYEING OTHER LEADERS
While Hardik has maintained that he has no intention of contesting elections, Mevani—who emerged as a Dalit leader in the wake of the Una flogging incident—earlier told HT that his “movement” has a political “perspective” but he would respond to the Congress invitation after consulting community members and organisations.
“I am against the RSS and BJP ideology, which is out to wipe out democracy from India. My movement is social as well as political. But I will respond to the Congress after consulting my community,” Mevani had said.
Meanwhile, the delay in announcement of Gujarat poll dates has triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP. While the Sonia Gandhiled party accused the Election Commission of succumbing to BJP’s pressure, the ruling party hit back at its arch-rival for ‘questioning the prudence’ of the poll body.