The Kshatriya leaders of the BJP have been summoned to Delhi by the Party High Command to discuss the Parshottam Rupala controversy.
BJP’s senior leaders held a meeting at Gandhinagar to review the situation on Sunday afternoon. The meeting was held at the residence of minister of state for home Harsh Sanghavi.
Senior Kshatriya leaders of the party, including Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Kiritsinh Rana, I K Jadeja and Balvantsinh Rajput, discussed ways to put an end to the stand-off between the party and the community members.
Last month, Union minister Parshottam Rupala angered the Kshatriya community when he said at a meeting that royals of the erstwhile princely states interacted in a friendly manner with foreign rulers, including the British, and even married their daughters to them.
‘It’s a conspiracy’
A beleaguered Rupala, on Sunday reached Surat to woo voters from Rajkot constituency who have settled there. He is BJP’s Rajkot Lok Sabha seat candidate.
Rupala faced protests in Surat on Sunday. A visibly agitated Rupala alleged that there was a conspiracy being planned against him.
A large number of members of the Rajput community gathered at Lajamani Chowk in Mota Varachha and shouted slogans demanding that Rupala be replaced as the Lok Sabha candidate. Amid heavy police deployment, more than 50 people from the Rajput community were detained for showing black flags to Rupala.
Visit to temple
Rupala offered prayers at Umiyadham temple, the deity of the Patidars. He refused to talk to the media. On his behalf, BJP vice-president Dr Bharat Boghra told mediapersons that the Union minister had come to meet people from seven assembly segments of Rajkot Lok Sabha seat who have settled in Surat. This was a tradition as a large number of people from Saurashtra region have settled in Surat, he added.
In the evening, Rupala addressed a gathering of people who are native to towns that fall under the Rajkot Lok Sabha constituency. He talked about Ram Mandir, Covid, Russia-Ukraine war and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his policy initiatives.
Kshatriya show of strength
Meanwhile, in Gandhinagar, the protests by Kshatriyas continued, with the community organising a show of strength in Dhandhuka, where a Kshatriya Asmita Mahasammelan was held on Sunday evening.
Community leaders from across the state and country attended the event. A call was made to intensify the protest and spread it to other parts of the country.
Rashtrawadi Janlok Party convener Sher Singh Rana, who was in Gujarat on Sunday to attend the meeting, told reporters that there was arrogance in Rupala’s apology. He said the agitation would be taken to other states. He predicted that the BJP could have setbacks in the Lok Sabha polls unless it replaced Rupala as its candidate from Rajkot.
Around 20 members of the Kshatriya community were detained at a village in Surendranagar where they attempted to disrupt a BJP rally on Sunday by waving black flags.
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