Will BJP benefit from Alpesh Thakor’s Congress exit?

New Delhi, Apr 11: In a major setback for the Congress, OBC leader and the party's MLA, Alpesh Thakor resigned from the party. He posted his resignation on Facebook and said that he had taken the decision as the Congress had ignored the Thakor community. They have been cheated by the grand old party he said.

The Congress termed the incident as unfortunate, while the BJP adding salt to the injury and said many have expressed displeasure with the Congress and quit.

Along with Thakor, two of his supporters Bharatsinh Thakor, an MLA from Becharaji and Dhavalsinh Zala, the legislator from Bayat resigned from the Congress. They would however not resign as MLAs.

It would be interesting to understand the impact of the resignations just 12 days ahead of the elections in Gujarat. The Thakor votes are particularly important in the constituencies of Patan, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha Lok Sabha seats. The BJP which has been having trouble in these constituencies, where the Thakor votes are important would hope that this resignation would come to their rescue.

These constituencies are also important as they fall in North Gujarat, which is the home turf of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The big question is will the Thakors follow Alpesh in full considering the fact that they are aware of him bargaining with both the BJP and Congress.

In the Banaskantha seat, there are seven assembly seats. In the 2017 assembly elections, Congress had won five here. In Patan, there are seven assembly constituencies and the BJP and Congress had won 3 each. The seventh seat was won by Jignesh Mevani, a Dalit leader who has the backing of the Congress. Alpesh Thakor is an MLA from Radhanpur, which falls under the Patan Lok Sabha seat.

In Sabarkantha, there are seven assembly seats and in 2018, the BJP had won three and the Congress four.