On Friday, Alpesh Thakor resigned from the Gujarat assembly immediately after casting his vote in the Rajya Sabha bye-elections. Joining him was Dhavalsinh Zala, the other rebel Congress MLA, both of whom indicated that they had voted for the BJP.
Alpesh had turned out to be more of a troublemaker for Congress. His induction and meteoric rise in the party had miffed several veterans in the party already and now they would feel relieved. His resignation from the assembly soon after the Rajya Sabha bye-elections has put his political plan out in the open. It is also unlikely that more MLAs will follow Alpesh and Dhavalsinh, since Alpesh lacks the political and strategical prowess to match with that of former Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela who had quit the Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in 2017, leading to a string of exits.
The timing of his resignation
Though Alpesh and Zala announced their resignations from all party positions in April this year, the two did not resign from the assembly. It was only after they voted for the Rajya Sabha bye-election did they decide to resign from the assembly. Even though this election was clearly in favour of the BJP and an extra vote or two would make no difference to the winner, the two OBC leaders wanted to send out a feeler to the BJP and to the community. One of the BJP’s candidates for the Rajya Sabha, Jugal Thakor, is an OBC and a Thakor.
Meanwhile, even as speaker Rajendra Trivedi did not entertain the earlier Congress petition to disqualify Thakor and Zala, the Congress on Friday moved another to disqualify the two, seeking that they be barred from contesting election for the next six years.
The Gujarat High Court, earlier this week, had turned down the Congress party’s petition seeking directions to the Assembly Speaker for disqualifying Thakor. The Congress party had announced it would take action against Thakor and Zala for defying the party whip by cross-voting.
What value did he add to the Congress?
From a social activist to a political leader, the stature of 42-year-old Alpesh Thakor rose rapidly when he was inducted into Congress in the presence of party’s president Rahul Gandhi on October 23, 2017 in Gandhinagar with a huge crowd of his supporters.
With a strong base, especially in the Northern districts of Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha and Sabarkantha that also has a sizeable population of Thakor community, Alpesh was seen as a strong leader who, having risen from the masses, had his fingers on their pulse and is very well aware about the issues at the ground level.
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In a way, he proved that and himself by winning the Radhanpur constituency against BJP’s Lavingji Thakor. Originally a Congress leader, Lavingji has been Shankersinh Vaghela’s supporter.
However, within a year of becoming MLA, Alpesh seemed a millstone around the Congress’s neck. He began to threaten to quit alleging discrimination against his people.
In September-October 2018, even as he was AICC secretary in charge of Bihar, he openly spoke out against migrants from Northern states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh after the rape of a 14-month-old toddler in a Himmatnagar village, Sabarkantha district, by a labourer from this belt.
His instigating speeches that went viral was said to be allegedly behind these attacks on migrants instigated by the Gujarat Thakor Sena which he led. The ruling government (BJP) too had warned action against him. However, no action was taken against him he managed to escape any action. But this certainly made a major dent in the Congress party and its base not only in Gujarat but states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar as migrants who were forced to leave Gujarat went back with the message that Gujarat’s Congress MLA is behind their misfortunes.
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If he joins the BJP, what does he bring to the table?
Notwithstanding Thakor’s openly wooing the BJP, eulogising prime minister Narendra Modi , and even voting for the BJP candidates in the RS by-poll, the BJP seems wary of inducting him immediately. To begin with, Alpesh had joined Congress and was elected as a MLA from Radhanpur after he shot to limelight for targeting the BJP government for its poor implementation of prohibition and campaigning against addiction.
But he is the BJP’s best bet to make inroads into the OBC community, one of the reasons why the BJP is sending a candidate from the community to the upper house. In the districts of Banaskantha and Patan, where the OBC numbers are high, Congress had won five of the nine seats and three of the four seats (including Thakor’s Radhanpur) respectively. Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani won one seat in Banaskantha.
The speculation about Alpesh joining BJP has not gone down well within the community though, which has started believing that they will continue to be used for personal political ambitions. These resentments were visible during marathon community meetings chaired by community heads in districts like Patan and Mehsana just a few days ahead of Lok Sabha elections where the community decided to not toe Alpesh’s line.
6 min read
From a social activist to a political leader, the stature of 42-year-old Alpesh Thakor rose rapidly when he was inducted into Congress in the presence of party’s president Rahul Gandhi on October 23, 2017 in Gandhinagar with a huge crowd of his supporters.
