Had senior leaders won, we would have formed Gujarat government: Congress' Alpesh Thakor

New Delhi: Congress leader Alpesh Thakor on Tuesday said his party will play the role of “constructive opposition” in Gujarat Assembly. The backward class leader was inducted into the Congress just ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls and scored his maiden election victory from Radhanpur seat, defeating his closest BJP rival Lavingji Thakor by 18,000 votes. He won but the party couldn't in the elections whose results were declared yesterday. Alpesh was at the forefront leading an agitation against the BJP government over the issues concerning the OBCs under the banner of the Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena. On Congress’ allegation that the EVMs were hacked, Alpesh said, “I have won and it won’t be appropriate I find fault in EVMs but I still demand checking of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.” Alpesh admitted that the Congress which won 83 seats could not connect well with the urban voters in comparison to the electorate in the rural areas. In the bitterly fought elections, the Congress was also assisted by young Patidar and Dalit leaders Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mewani in its campaign against the BJP. Alpesh said he will continue to work with the rest of the two leaders. “All of us fought well, so did Jignesh. We will work together.” He believed that that if many of their senior leaders had won they would have formed the government. “We fell short by just nine seats.” To a question that Congress should have allied with NCP for elections, he said, "the loss is not because of not forming an alliance with other parties. Rahulji’s influence was quite a lot. Even lots of VIP BJP leaders faced defeat.” Alpesh says development needs to reach villages and the rural rung for which he would strive.