BJP MP Mitesh Patel, who is seeking a second term from the Anand Lok Sabha seat, and the party's Khambhat Assembly bypoll candidate Chirag Patel faced the ire of the Kshatriya community in Kalamsar and Dhuvaran villages of Anand on Tuesday over the controversial statements made by Union Minister Parshottam Rupala. However, a defensive BJP said the protests were "orchestrated by the Congress". Chanting slogans of 'Jai Bhavani' and 'Rupala Hay Hay', the village residents in the Khambhat Assembly segment heckled and turned away the duo and other office-bearers of the BJP, including Khambhat Taluka Panchayat President Shivani Patel, who had arrived for the election campaign. Despite a heavy police deployment in the area, the Kshatriya community members gathered and blocked the roads, preventing the vehicles of the BJP's campaign convoy from entering the villages. "No party worker or leader of the BJP should step into this village until the time that the candidature of Parshottam Rupala is withdrawn," read banners in Kalamsar. As the chants continued unabated, police personnel advised the leaders to step back and leave. Police also detained five Kshatriya community youths in Dhuvaran, leading to an extended protest. However, Mitesh Patel accused the Congress of "orchestrating" the agitation. "There is no protest from the actual Kshatriya community and the Thakor-Kshatriyas are with the BJP. I campaigned the entire day in the Assembly constituency and was welcomed by the voters in all other villages. We do not make much of the protests that are incited by the Congress as their candidate Amit Chavda is not even seeking votes in the name of his party but on the basis of caste-division.. If they have the strength to fight, they should seek votes in the name of their party as we do," he told The Indian Express.
