Rabaris, Maldharis storm Cong office, demand ticket for Gova

The Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan at Paldi on Monday was besieged by nearly 5,000 workers from Rabari and Maldhari community who flocked in from all over the state, mainly from Banaskantha, to oppose the candidature of Danta MLA Mukesh Gadhvi from the North Gujarat seat. One such protesting farmer who was part of the gathering outside the party office in Paldi, Dalpatbhai Rabari said, "Our candidate Gova Rabari was promised ticket and then denied. Our community forms 14% of the entire state's electorate, but not even a single candidate has been fielded from our community. We will not support Gadhvi, and we are confident he will lose."

The crowd outside GPCC created quite a ruckus for better part of the day, choking traffic and creating chaos. Police had to be called to control the situation after some patrons entered the party premises and broke furniture and glass panes.

However, when asked about the dispute and Congress's prospects on the seat, state party president Siddharth Patel flatly denied any possibility of revoking Gadhvi's candidature. "There are 200 communities in Gujarat and only 26 seats. Why point fingers at us (Congress)? Has the BJP given a single ticket to a candidate from the community? In fact, Congress is the only political party that has always watched out for the interests of these communities. We had indeed given them candidature for the state assembly elections, but they had lost," Patel said, asserting that the community would not desert them in the polling booth.

Last but not the least, members wishing to file nominations for Youth Congress also raided GPCC on Monday evening demanding the extension of dates to file nomination papers for elections of Youth Cong. Much commotion and activity was witnessed there as well.