AHMEDABAD: Former MLA Alpesh Thakor was on Monday involved in a war of words with his BJP colleague Lavingji Thakor, whom he had defeated in the 2017 Assembly polls, over who will get the party ticket from Radhanpur.
Alpesh, who hit the headlines around the same time as Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani, had won from Radhanpur on a Congress ticket, but had resigned from the party and the Assembly in 2019 and joined the BJP, before being beaten in the bypoll by Congress' Raghu Desai.
"I will fight elections from Radhanpur seat. Those who are against me will not be allowed to contest from this seat. Ask Lavingji why he is trying to divide the Thakor samaj (community)? What will he get from it," Alpesh said while addressing a mass-marriage programme of the community in Radhanpur, some 170 kilometres from here.
Hitting back, Lavingji said, "The party will never give a ticket to Alpesh. The party knows who he is. I work 24/7 among the people of this area and that is why the party will give me a ticket."
Meanwhile, some people from Radhanpur held a meeting during the day and said they would support the BJP only if it fielded a local candidate and not an outsider.
Incidentally, Alpesh lives in Ahmedabad and that is the reason why the local BJP leadership is against him being given the ticket.
Speaking on the issue later, Alpesh said, "It is the prerogative of the party to decide who will get a ticket from which seat. I had expressed my wish as people from Radhanpur who I meet want me to contest from there."
The BJP has not yet issued any comment on this war of words between two of its leaders.
Assembly polls are likely in December in Gujarat, which has been ruled by the BJP for the past 27 years.