OBC leader ready to share stage with Hardik on quota for poor

Alpesh Thakor, the convener of OBC Ekta Manch, has been opposing Hardik's quota demand for the Patel community

In what could be a significant turn in the quota agitation in Gujarat, a prominent OBC leader on Sunday said that he would be ready to work with the Patel quota movement spearhead Hardik Patel, if the latter took up the cause of reservation for poor people of all communities. “If Hardik wants to meet us then we would welcome him and I would urge him to share stage and fight on the issue of poor people of all the communities,” Alpesh Thakor, the convener of OBC Ekta Manch, which has been opposing Hardik's quota demand for the Patel community, told PTI.

The OBC Ekta Manch is an umbrella body of the 146 OBC communities in Gujarat that came up after the Patels raised the demand for inclusion within the OBC fold.

“I wish Hardik’s agitation  had gone in the right direction. I would have extended my support to him had he raised the issue of reservation to the poor people of the Patel community,” Thakor said.

Hardik, the 22-year-old convener of Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti, who has been spearheading the agitation for reservation to Gujarat's Patel community under Other Backward Class (OBC) category, had yesterday said he will approach the people who are opposing his movement.

“People who are opposing our movement, we will approach them to make them understand about our issue (of quota under OBC category),” Hardik had said after his release on bail following arrest for defying prohibitory orders.

Thakor, the 38-year-old president of Thakor Kshatriya Samaj who claims to fight for SCs, STs and OBCs, while addressing Hardik as his "younger brother" said he should have carried on the agitation peacefully and not by disturbing law and order in Gujarat. The OBC and Patel communities have turned against each other in Gujarat following the Patel quota stir. The OBCs have threatened that they will uproot the BJP government if Patels are given reservation.

The OBC community has also announced to take out a Pratikar Yatra(counter rally) against Hardik Patel’s Ekta March (from Dandi to Ahmedabad) to counter the Patel quota agitation.