Ahmedabad: The results of the Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat will decide the political future of OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who emerged as the face of the Thakor community during Patidar reservation agitation in 2015.
Mr Thakor, Congress MLA from Radhanpur, left the party just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, saying he was being sidelined and injustice was done to his community. There was a buzz that he would join the BJP but that did not happen. Mr Thakor openly campaigned against the Congress during the elections.
With voting completed, Congress chief whip Ashwin Kotwal has approached the Assembly secretariat seeking Mr Thakor’s expulsion as a legislator.
“He has resigned from the Congress and worked against the party. Since he was elected on a Congress ticket, he cannot continue as an MLA as per the rules,” Mr Kotwal wrote.
Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi is expected to hear the matter. Political observers believe that the Congress did not initiate action against Mr Thakor before the elections out of the fear that it would lose the votes of the community.
Many believe that if the Congress performs well, especially in Banaskantha, Patan, it will give a clear signal that the young politician does not sway the Thakor voters.
