rupala-wins-rajkot-despite-kshatriya-protest

Former Union Minister Purshottam Rupala, who was contesting Rajkot seat from BJP won with a margin of around 4.84 lakh votes.

 

A statewide protest against Rajkot candidate Rupala due to his remark about the Kshatriya community in Rajkot failed to deter his chances. Throughout the protest, Kshatriyas held the slogan ‘Modi tujhse bair nahi, Rupala teri kher nahi.’

The Kshatriya protest grew huge with community leaders going to every village, to convince people to vote against the BJP. The Kshatriya demand to swap Rupala with a Rajkot candidate was not accepted by the BJP high command, which had been expected to result in some cross-voting from the community members. 

 

In addition to this, the Congress candidate Paresh Dhanani belongs to the Leuva Patidar community, against Rupala who is a Kadva.

Leuvas are traditionally community voters and are expected to always vote for their community candidates.

Also, the population of Leuva in Rajkot is almost thrice that of Kadva Patidars.

 

However, from the election results declared today, it has been evident that the Kshatriya and Leuva factors have not influenced much on the ballot box.

Rupala received 8,57,984 votes as against his counterpart Paresh Dhanani’s 3,73,724 votes. 

 

According to Kshatriya leader Devendra Jadeja, “Our protest was not about winning or losing, it was a protest from our heart and we are happy that our community has succeeded in creating a strong union to fight together against any issues related to the community.
However, it must be noted that BJP’s resolve of winning all Gujarat seats has been broken by Geniben Thakor in Banaskatha.”

The lone Congress winner in Gujarat, Geniben has thanked the Kshatriyas for helping her in winning.

 

BJP spokesman Raju Dhruv says that ‘Modi himself has a very good connection with Rajkotians. 

 

Modi and the BJP have done several things for the city that have not only made the most dire problem of water shortage a thing of the past and put the region on the fast track to progress.

 

The people have given their reply in the ballot box. This is also a result of the consistent hard work of party workers.”

 

Congress candidate Dhanani sportingly congratulated Rupala for the win.