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HomePoliticsHardik, Alpesh, Jignesh win — the road ahead for Gujarat's 'triumvirate'

Hardik, Alpesh, Jignesh win — the road ahead for Gujarat’s ‘triumvirate’

While Thakor & Patel, once considered close to Rahul Gandhi, contested this Gujarat election on BJP tickets, Mevani, who had won in 2017 as an Independent, is now with Congress.

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New Delhi: In 2016-17, three young, fiery faces came into prominence in Gujarat to take up three different causes. The trio came to be known as “HAJ”— 29-year-old Hardik Patel, 47-year-old Alpesh Thakor and 41-year-old Jignesh Mevani. They were the most prominent faces from the next generation of leaders in the state in the run-up to 2017 assembly elections.

Once close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, they have taken different paths since, with Thakor and Patel contesting this year’s assembly election on BJP tickets and Mevani in contention as a Congress candidate.

Patel won in Viramgam by over 51,000 votes Thursday, while Thakor won the Gandhinagar South seat by over 43,000 votes. Incumbent MLA Mevani won in Vadgam by nearly 5,000 votes.

Patel couldn’t contest the previous assembly election in Gujarat in 2017 as he was underage at the time. Thakor had successfully contested the election as a Congress candidate, but quit the party to join the BJP in 2019 after voting against the Congress during a Rajya Sabha election. He lost the assembly bypoll that year. Mevani was an Independent MLA before he joined the Congress this year.

All three had attained national prominence for the causes they led. While Mevani had led an agitation protesting atrocities against Dalits, following the assault on a Dalit family by alleged cow vigilantes in a village that was then part of Una, Patel was the face of the prominent Patidar agitation demanding reservations for the community. Thakor, on the other hand, led an agitation of people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes against the Patidar movement, demanding reservations based on the populations of each of these communities. The SC, ST and OBC commuiunities already have reservations in jobs and education.

ThePrint looks at their career graphs.


Also read: BJP poised to record historic win in Gujarat, trailing in Himachal, early trends show


Hardik Patel

The youngest of the three, 29-year old Hardik Patel is contesting in the Viramgam seat, which the Congress had won in the past two elections, in 2012 and 2017. While the Congress’s vote share had declined by more than 10 per cent over the past two elections, this time the BJP is leading by a margin of over 49 per cent, according to ECI data.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged the second spot here, while the incumbent Congress was in third place.

15 years after it last won the seat in 2007, the BJP seems set to bring Viramgam back into the fold, courtesy Patel.

Patel, who joined the BJP after quitting the Congress earlier this year, was once a staunch critic of the ruling party. An old video where he said, “I am the son of a man, I will never surrender by joining the BJP. We are the sons of farmers. We will fight and struggle, but we will not surrender to the BJP,” went viral after the young leader joined the BJP.

In another interview in 2018, Patel had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “I openly oppose him. I don’t hide it. I oppose Modi with all my power.”

Patel joined the Congress in 2019 in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.

However, when he switched sides in 2022, he said, “I felt it my duty to be a soldier of Narendrabhai… I will try to be a small squirrel for the Ram Setu”.

Patel purportedly had his reasons, both for attacking the BJP and later joining the party. In an interview with ThePrint last month, he said, “(The Congress) had a problem with the removal of Article 370 (in Kashmir) and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi verdict (by the Supreme Court, both in 2019). I can never compromise on this. I’m a Hindu and have religious sentiments. I also wanted the removal of Article 370 and the Ram Temple to be built in Ayodhya,” he said.

Alpesh Thakor

Thakor was also considered close to Rahul Gandhi at one point, before quitting the Congress in 2019.

In 2016, Thakor launched the OSS (OBC, SC, ST) Ekta Manch to counter the Patidar quota agitation. According to Thakor, reservation for the Patidars — traditionally an agrarian caste — would be harmful to existing quota holders. OBCs are estimated to form 52 per cent of Gujarat’s population. Thakor went on to suggest 100 per cent reservation for all, based on the proportion of population in the state.

He joined the Congress in 2017 in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and won the Radhanpur seat in the assembly elections that year, by a margin of 15,000 votes.

However, the once staunch BJP critic later turned to the ruling party. He lost the Radhanpur bypoll in 2019 on a BJP ticket by 3,800 votes.

Thakor won over 54 per cent of votes Thursday. According to ECI data, in 2012 and 2017 too, the BJP’s near-50 per cent vote share in this Thakor-community-dominated seat had remained intact. In the two previous elections, Shambhuji Thakor was the party’s winning candidate here.

After joining the BJP, Thakor had said, “I was admitted in a wrong school. The teachers were weak and they never understood the tone of people. Hence, in the interest of my community and my people, I quit that school and joined a new one.”

Jignesh Mevani

Jignesh Mevani is the only one of the three who has stuck around in the opposition.

In the last Gujarat assembly election in 2017, Mevani was elected as an Independent MLA. This time around though, Mevani is contesting on a Congress ticket. Vadgam, a constituency dominated by Muslim and Dalit voters, according to government data, is seen as a Congress stronghold. However with All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Kalpesh Sundhiya in the fray, the election could have become tougher for Mevani.

The Congress leader managed to win, however, with 48 per cent votes.

Mevani came into prominence in 2016 for leading an agitation protesting atrocities against Dalits. The agitation was triggered by an incident where members of a Dalit family were beaten, allegedly by cow vigilantes. Videos of the incident, which took place in Mota Samadhiyala village, went viral, leading to anger among Dalits.

A little-known activist-lawyer at the time, Mevani launched a march from Ahmedabad to Una, of which Mota Samadhiyala was then a part (it’s now part of Amreli district) emerging as a popular Dalit face in the state.

With the assembly election over, Mevani is expected to seek a bigger role for himself at the national level.

During an interview with ThePrint last month, Mevani had said, “I am not meant for just one election or to be just an MLA. I want to go all across India. That is what the party also wants”.

Patel and Thakor are also likely to look for bigger roles for themselves in the coming times, as the BJP looks set to return in Gujarat for another term. However, their hostile past with the party is likely to raise questions about their future.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: Gujarat BJP leader who jumped in river to save Morbi survivors leads with over 32,000 votes


 

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