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Journalism of Courage
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Gandhinagar South constituency and Thakor community leader Alpesh Thakor who filed his nomination papers on Thursday urged the BJP workers to give him one chance to win their hearts.
Addressing a convention of BJP workers of Gandhinagar, attended by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and party general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela, Thakor said, “…I request you. Lotus (BJP) has been winning here… So make lotus win (this time too). I request that you make BJP victorious.”
The BJP chose Alpesh in Gandhin-agar South, dropping its two-time MLA Shambhuji Thakor who was conspicuous by his absence at the event.
A native of Endla in Viramgam tehsil of Ahmedabad district, Alpesh has earlier fought assembly elections on two occasions from Radhanpur constituency of Patan district. In 2017, he won on Congress ticket but in 2019, he quit the party and also resigned as MLA.
“Give me one opportunity to serve you as a BJP candidate. I request all the workers. Give me one opportunity to create space in your hearts, to serve you… I am assuring you that my conduct and my behaviour will always be to get space in your hearts… to serve the people… for the development of the region,” Thakor said.
“When honourable Narendrabhai (Modi), Amitbhai Shah saheb and CR Paatil saheb have chosen me as a candidate, I request you to make lotus victorious… lotus will strengthen the hands of Bhupendrabhai (Patel),” he said.
Seeking blessings of everyone, Alpesh also highlighted how Gujarat has developed in the past 27 years of BJP governance. He said that it is the BJP that has provided security and development to the people of Gujarat.
Gujarat BJP general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela in his address said that he was hoping that the workers would make Thakor victorious with a bumper lead.
“Alpeshbhai joined the BJP after resigning as an MLA. The BJP sent him again to fight assembly elections from Radhanpur. (We) did not get result. It has been three years since. During those three years, Alpeshbhai has worked with BJP workers in Radhanpur, standing by them in their times of happiness or sadness… You can ask the party workers in Radhanpur how was his conduct… I am confident that he will be successful in winning the love of party workers of Gandhinagar South,” Vaghela said.
Vaghela also asked the party workers to take up the responsibility to work for the victory of Alpesh Thakor as the party also wanted to utilise the latter’s services in other constituencies of North Gujarat as well.
In his address, CM Patel highlighted the developmental works done by BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked the workers to make Alpesh victorious. The CM told them to seek votes on the basis of the works done by the BJP governments and the ones that it promises to do in future.
A number of party office-bearers of Gandhinagar city and district, including Gandhinagar Mayor Hitesh Makwana, were also present.
Alpesh also led a rally of his supporters to file the nomination papers, accompanied by the chief minister. Opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have fielded Himanshu Patel and Dolat Patel respectively from the seat.
