Skip to main content

Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017:It is make or break for Alpesh Thakor at Radhanpur

Gujarat Key Constituencies: Radhanpur
It is make or break for Alpesh Thakor at Radhanpur

By Deepak Parvatiyar

http://www.pudhari.news/news/National/Adhap-Thaakor-ability-test-in-Radhanpur-for-elections/

In Radhanpur, a town in North Gujarat’s Patan district, it is the test of the strength of thirty five year old Alpesh Thakor. He, one the of the three young turks, other being Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani, who have challenged the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat this elections. 

In the past Radhanpur assembly segment had also sent yet another challenger to the BJP’s might in the state, Shankarsinh Vaghela. It elected him to Gujarat assembly in early 1997 after he had split the BJP to form his own Rashtriya Janata Party then.

But as for Alpesh, who had set up an OBC,SC,ST Ekta Manch, is concerned, unlike Vaghela, he is a new face in state politics and only on the poll eve that he had joined the Congress party. He though has a political pedigree as his father was a Congress leader. In the last two years, he  has rapidly climbed the political ladder by playing the OBC card.

Alpesh is up against many odds in Radhanpur. First many see him as an outsider. A video clip showing him vowing before the ‘Sun God’ that he would never enter politics too has been in circulation here. Besides, Lavingji Thakor, the BJP candidate against him too belongs to the same caste. 

Alpesh’s  candidature from the constituency has even created a rift within the Congress with local party workers protesting it. Obviously by fielding him from Radhanpur, the Congress had in mind its 67 per cent OBC population. However over 2,000 party workers protested angrily over his choice as they wanted Raghu Desai as their candidate. Desai was also the unanimous choice in a survey conducted by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

In 2012 assembly elections though, the Congress had fielded Bhavsinhji Dayaji Rathod who had then lost to the BJP’s Nagarji Thakor by a slender margin of 3834 votes. What is significant though is that this time the BJP has dropped its sitting MLA Nagarji Thakor, in favour of Lavingjiwho was originally a Congress leader, known to be a Vaghela supporter who had even vacated the Radhanpur seat for Vaghela.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

War between Arvind Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung

War between Arvind Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung By  Deepak Parvatiyar May 21, 2015 Rate this post The ongoing public spat between Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the control of Delhi administration has exposed the grey areas in governance that require immediate redressal to ensure against any such crisis in the city state of Delhi. The immediate provocation was the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting Chief Secretary of Delhi by the Lieutenant Governor in spite of Kejriwal’s strong opposition on 15th May this year. This made the Chief Minister cry foul alleging that the LG was “functioning as if there is President’s Rule in the national capital and there is no elected government here” by bypassing the “democratically elected government…(and) issuing instructions to officers”. Much drama unfolded ever since. Both Kejriwal and Jung indulged into public sparring with Kejriwal even dispatching an angry letter to Jun...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is this the End of Dynastic Politics in India?

Is this the End of Dynastic Politics in India? By  Deepak Parvatiyar July 30, 2014 Why are we so eager to write the epitaph of dynastic rule just because the Congress lost the elections this time? Didn’t the torch bearers of India’s foremost political dynasty – the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, who contested the elections, actually won? Whether it was Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul (both Congress), Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun (both BJP) all of them tasted victory at the hustings. Can Dynasties be Devoid of Conflicting Ideologies? I have another poser. It may be a wild assumption but suppose Varun rises in the BJP to become the prime minister of the country, would we call him carrying the legacy of a Nehru or a Gandhi? Would we make a distinction because of the ideological differences between Nehru’s centrist and Varun’s right wing politics? Yet there are instances in Indian politics where fathers (even mothers) and sons (and daughters alike) have nurtured poli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Expectations from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s India Visit

Expectations from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s India Visit By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 5, 2014 Much is expected of the ensuing India visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping both on strategic and economic fronts. Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman visited Beijing at the same time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Japan. India expects Jinping’s visit to pave the way for major Chinese investments in the country, while also hoping China to facilitate Indian IT services exports by removing the barriers. Border dispute between the two countries too are expected to figure in the summit meet. China High on India’s Agenda There is no doubt that China is crucial to the Modi government’s foreign policy. Vice President Hamid Ansari had visited Beijing in June this year (Seetharaman had accompanied Ansari to China then too). At that time both countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on facilitating Chinese industrial parks in India...
Post a Comment
Read more