5 Points On Alpesh Thakor, BJP's Candidate From Gujarat's Gandhinagar South

Alpesh Thakor was the face of the anti-BJP campaign in the state during the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections. He emerged as a strong OBC leader and won a Congress ticket. This time he has switched sides to the BJP.  

Here are five points about Alpesh Thakor.

• Alpesh Thakor was in the limelight during the Patel quota agitation in Gujarat in 2015. He was the convener of OBC-ST-SC Ekta Manch and opposed the Patel quota agitation led by Hardik Patel.
• He formed Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena and emerged as a strong face of the sizable OBC community in the state.
• Alpesh Thakor joined the Congress just ahead of the Assembly elections in 2017. He won from the Radhanpur constituency in the Patan district.
• He quit all posts in Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections alleging ill-treatment by the state leadership. He joined the BJP in July that year. Alpesh Thakor said that joining BJP was in the interest of "his community and people".
• He contested the bypolls from Radhanpur in October 2019 but lost to Raghubhai Desai of Congress by over 3,000 votes.