New Delhi: The internal discord brewing in Congress’ Gujarat unit could take a worrying turn in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections with prominent OBC leader and party MLA Alpesh Thakor blaming the state unit for “sidelining” his community and him.
Thakor claimed that the party high command has done nothing despite being apprised of the issue.
“The problems that are happening are because of the state unit and the leaders here but we have tried to convey this to the high command several times and nothing has been done,” Thakor told ThePrint.
Thakor, who shot to prominence in 2015 as an OBC leader, joined the Congress only in the run up to the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, going on to win the Radhanpur seat in north Gujarat.
“We are being sidelined. My community and people are being ignored. Our honesty is being ignored,” Thakor said.
“We decided to join hands with the Congress when the party was going through a low phase but we have got nothing in return. If things continue this way, the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls will suffer,” he said.
The OBC leader said the party could have done much better in the 2017 assembly polls in Gujarat but for “issues in the state leadership”.
A source in the Gujarat Congress who did not wish to be identified said the state unit of the party feels Thakor is “doing more harm than good” and “though he joined the party only recently, he has tried to throw his weight around.”
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‘Talks with BJP’
Highly placed sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Thakor “has been in talks with the party” and “it is very possible he might switch over before the Lok Sabha polls.”
However, Thakor, who has been unhappy with the functioning of the Congress in Gujarat and the treatment meted out to him, has said he has no plans of leaving the Congress for now.
“No, I am not leaving the Congress or joining the BJP at all for now. I am saying all this for the benefit of the Congress and keeping in mind the party’s best interests,” said Thakor.
“I want the party to do well in the Lok Sabha elections, which is why I am expressing these concerns,” he said.
The ruling BJP had blamed Thakor’s Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena (GKTS) for the violence against migrants in the state that led to a mass exodus in October last year.
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