Amid Kshatriya ire against Rupala, his nemesis Paresh Dhanani ‘ready’ to enter Rajkot poll fray

GUJARAT CONGRESS leader Paresh Dhanani said on Tuesday that he would enter the electoral battlefield in Rajkot if the BJP persisted with Union Minister Parshottam Rupala as its Lok Sabha candidate despite simmering protests over his remarks about Kshatriyas.

Addressing the media after a meeting with Congress leaders and workers from Rajkot at his home in Amreli, Dhanani, who was leader of the Opposition, drew parallels between Rupala’s remarks and the Mahabharata tale of Draupadi’s disrobing in a full court. Dhanani said he and his party could not remain silent “like how Bhishmapitamah and Guru Dronacharya when Draupadi’s modesty was being outraged”.

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Kshatriya women have been protesting for the last 15 days demanding the BJP cancel Rupala’s ticket, either he should withdraw from the race or his party should cancel his nomination, Dhanani said. He added that if the BJP remained unmoved, he would be compelled to challenge Rupala for the Rajkot seat.

Talking to The Indian Express, Dhanani (47) said that he had opted out of the Lok Sabha polls due to personal reasons. “Besides being a politician, I am also a father to two daughters and my family needs my attention. Therefore, I had requested the Congress leadership that I would back the party’s candidates and work for them.”

Dhanani has proved to be a nemesis for high-profile BJP politicians in Amreli. As a 26year-old, he had defeated Rupala, a three-time sitting MLA who was agriculture minister in Narendra Modi’s state cabinet, in 2002. He defeated another BJP stalwart, Dilip Sanghani, in the same constituency in 2012 and went on to retain the seat in 2017 by defeating former minister Bavku Undhad. However, Dhanani lost the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2022 Assembly polls.

He had opted out of LS race due to ‘personal reasons’