Union Minister and BJP candidate from Rajkot constituency Parshottam Rupala during 'Sneh Milan' event ahead of Lok Sabha elections, in Surat.
Credit: PTI Photo
Rajkot: Kshatriya community members have again demanded that the BJP remove Union minister Parshottam Rupala as the party candidate for the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, vowing to intensify their protest in the coming days.
The Kshatriya community, also called Rajputs, held a public meeting at Ratanpur village in Gujarat's Rajkot district on Sunday, at a time when the ruling BJP has announced that Rupala will file his nomination papers on April 16.
“We are firm on our demand for withdrawal of Rupala’s candidature. We have demanded from the BJP that Rupala has to go and we stand firm on the demand,” Ramjubha Jadeja, a core committee member of the Kshatrya community, said addressing the meeting.
Gujarat's 26 Lok Sabha seats, including Rajkot, will go to polls in a single phase on May 7 and votes will be counted on June 4.
The BJP won all the seats in the state in 2014 and 2019.
“Rupala insulted our daughters and sisters. Then he played a farce of seeking apology. But we have rejected his apology. We will continue with our protest against Rupala. BJP must withdraw him as the Lok Sabha candidate from Rajkot,” Jadeja said.
“In the past, when people made mistakes, the BJP leadership took action against such people, which includes the case of Nupur Sharma (former party spokesperson),' he said.
Jadeja said the community will intensify its agitation in the coming days as he thanked Kshatriyas from other states like Rajasthan for extending support to the community members in Gujarat in their fight against Rupala.
Many other community members also addressed the meeting, appealing for agitating in a peaceful manner.
Kshatriya community women leader Trupti Ba said, "Rupala has insulted the daughters and sisters of the community and he has to go. Nothing should be done to hurt the self-respect of women and we will not sit idle till our self-respect is restored."
Another community leader Dasrathsinh Sarvaiya claimed “Rupala’s days are numbered and he should not represent the people of Rajkot as their MP”.
Rupala enraged the Kshatriya community after he recently claimed that the erstwhile ‘maharajas’ succumbed to the persecution of foreign rulers, including the Britishers. He said these ‘maharajas’ broke bread with these rulers and also married off their daughters to them.
The Kshatriya community members are demanding that the BJP drop him as the Rajkot Lok Sabha candidate.
Rupala has apologised, but the community is not appeased.