Even as Kshatriya communities continued their protests against BJP candidate Parshottam Rupala over his controversial remarks about former princely families, the BJP was faced with another hurdle as party workers of two different groups clashed over the candidate in Amreli.
The severe infighting in Amreli — after the party dropped sitting MP Naran Kachchdiya — surfaced as supporters of the outgoing MP and those of Bharat Sutariya, the party nominee in the Lok Sabha seat clashed on Saturday late night.
After the clashes, several members were taken to the local hospital; later, Mr. Kachchdiya was also rushed there. Some video clips showed a few injured party members lying on beds in a hospital.
“There is huge infighting in Amreli. Supporters of Naran Kachchdiya are upset that he has been dropped,” a local leader said.
So far, Mr. Kachchdiya has not made any statement but people close to him have said that he was disappointed by the party’s decision to replace him despite his performance. He has been MP since 2009.
The clashes between the members of the two groups occurred after the meeting with the cluster in-charge and former Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who has said that Mr. Sutariya will remain the party candidate.
This was the first time the ruling party was witnessing such a crisis after it declared its candidates in the State. Earlier, the party had to announce new candidates for Vadodara and Sabarkantha after the nominees opted out from the electoral race following protests from the local cadre.
Though the party did not make any official statement regarding the clashes in Amreli, insiders said that the protests continued despite the high command’s efforts to sort out differences.
Former district president of BJP Bharat Kanabar a post on X, while tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Amit Shah, claimed that casteism was leaving no space for meritorious and eligible candidates.
“Casteism is the most dreaded bomb that blows away meritocracy. So-and-so seat is considered to belong to Koli society, so-and-so reserved for Patel society, so-and-so belongs to Thakor society or Ahir society or Kshatriya society. Is there any seat reserved for eligible candidates in this??” he said in a post in Gujarati.
In Sabarkantha, even after the party nominated a new candidate, the local cadre were upset about that it was Shobhana Baraiya, wife of former Congress legislator Mehandra Baraiya.
On Saturday, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel held a marathon meeting with local workers of Sabarkantha. However, a solution was yet to be found as local workers remained adamant about changing the candidate.
“In Sabarkantha, party workers want any worker from the BJP to be the candidate instead of the wife of a former Congress lawmaker,” a party leader from Sabarkantha said.
