A BJP worker has been elected as the sarpanch of Mota Samadhiyala village in Una tehsil of Gir-Somnath district, which was in news last July when four local Dalit youths were thrashed by cow vigilantes.
In the Gram Panchayat polls held recently in Gujarat, Dhanjibhai Korat was elected as the sarpanch of Mota Samadhiyala, while Ramesh Sarvaiya, a relative of victims of the cow vigilantism incident and Korat's supporter, was elected as a member of the Gram Panchayat.
Both were among the invitees at a function at BJP headquarters here today to felicitate over 8,000 sarpanchs, who the ruling party said were its supporters and who won in the elections to more than 10,000 Gram Panchayats.
Panchayat elections are not contested on party lines in the state.
Korat and Sarvaiya were felicitated by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani.
Talking to reporters afterwards, Korat said he was a BJP worker for over six years. "People voted for me because all the communities, including Dalits and Patels, trusted me," he said.
In July last year, four youths from Sarvaiya family were allegedly thrashed by some cow vigilantes as they were skinning a dead cow. Later they were taken to Una town and thrashed again in full public view.
The incident created a huge uproar in Gujarat and elsewhere in the country. It also sparked state-wide protests by Dalits, who alleged that BJP-led government had not taken enough steps to ensure their safety.
Jitu Sarvaiya, a member of victims' family, said Dalits supported Korat because he was among those who had tried to save his cousins from cow vigilantes.
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