New Delhi: Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani on Thursday advised OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who resigned from Congress, to refuse to join BJP. While Patidar leader Hardik Patel said he would try to bring Thakor back to Congress.
The OBC leader and Congress MLA from Radhanpur, Thakor, on Wednesday, resigned from the Congress along with two other MLAs accusing the grand-old party of ignoring his community members in the party.
Speaking to the media persons, Patel, who has recently joined the Congress, said he was trying to contact Thakor to know his ‘displeasure’ with the party and that he would try to bring him back to Congress.
“I will try to convince Thakor to bring back to Congress. I will talk to him,’’ Hardik Patel said.
On Wednesday, immediately after Thakor announced his resignation from Congress, Mewani, who has been campaigning for his comrade friend Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusurai in Bihar, wrote on his official Facebook page that we will only be able to know why Thakor resigned from Congress once he reveals about it.
Moreover Mewani, in his Facebook post, advised Thakor, not to go with BJP which is anti-Thakor and anti-poor party.
Hardik Patel had launched Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) demanding quota in education and jobs in OBC category in 2015.
Alpesh Thakor, who belongs to numerically strong Thakor community had emerged as arch-rival to Patel defending OBC rights. However, political equations had changed and later, both joined hands to fight against the BJP.
In 2016, Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani emerged after four Dalits were flogged in Una of Gir-Somnath district by cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow. Later on, Mewani, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor came on one stage and gave a call to topple the BJP government ahead of 2017 assembly polls.
Just before the Assembly polls in 2017, Thakor and his aides joined Congress and contested the elections. Thakor had won from Radhapur Assembly constituency while Jignesh Mewani contested as an independent candidate with the support of the Congress and won from Vadgam Assembly seat.
Interestingly, once seen on stage with Thakor, Patel and Mewani have been keeping a distance from Thakor since last few months. Analysts believe that they sensed Thakor’s ambition and inclination towards BJP.
On Wednesday afternoon, Thakor posted his resignation letter on his official Facebook page and later addressed media to make wild accusations against senior Congress leaders. He went on to allege that Congress leaders ‘ignored’ Thakor community members.
“Thakors have been cheated by the grand old party,” he said.
However, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Chavda refuted the allegations and termed Thakor’s allegation and the language he used in the resignation letter, as ‘unfortunate’.
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