Mumbai: After the eventful visit of Dalit leader and MLA Jignesh Mevani, two young leaders from Gujarat — OBC leader and Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and Patidar leader Hardik Patel — are likely to visit Maharashtra soon.
Mr. Thakor was in Mumbra near Thane in the last week of December to attend a function organised by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA, Jitendra Awhad, also an OBC leader. While his visit did not attract media attention, Mr. Thakor is set to tour the State again with a call to save the Constitution.
Following the death of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde and arrest of the NCP leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, the OBC community is facing a leadership vacuum.
The Congress, according to sources, plans to bank on Mr. Thakor’s campaign in Gujarat and his emergence as an OBC leader there. An All India Congress Committee member, who didn’t wish to be named, said the high command will take a decision of allowing a leader from a particular state to travel elsewhere. “But the general feeling within the Congress is to explore the response he (Alpesh) may get, and that will be gauged by sending him to a few pockets in the beginning,” he said.
Mr. Patel, on the other hand, is not new for Maharashtra as his visit to Matoshri — residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray — during the election campaign for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had raised eyebrows.
Mr. Thackeray had even claimed that Mr. Patel would be his party’s face in the Gujarat polls to which Mr. Patel had said that his visit to Matoshri was to pay tributes to ‘late Balasaheb Thackeray’. The bonhomie in Mumbai did not last till the Gujarat polls, and none of them referred to this visit during the Gujarat campaign.
Two weeks ago, however, leaders of the Maratha Kranti Morcha held a meeting with Mr. Patel in Ahmadabad inviting him to the State. The Patidar leader has expressed support to the Maratha demands, claiming those are on similar terms with that of the Patidar community. Mr. Patel also held a Facebook live chat with Maratha community members last week.
“He has promised to visit the state and extend his support to the Maratha cause. He comes with a leadership skill that has no political baggage, and Maratha youth want to explore the option. We will soon come out with a detailed plan for his visit,” said one of the leaders of Maratha Kranti Morcha, who held a meeting with Mr. Patel.
