Rajkot:

Congress MLA, senior Koli leader and national president of All India Koli Samaj, Kunvarji Bavaliya today said that he has no problem with the decision of the party high command to select Patidar MLA Paresh Dhanani as the leader of opposition in Gujarat assembly but his supporters not only in the state but across the country were somewhat annoyed at it.

Kunvarji Bavaliya said that though his community was angry yet he was confident that he would he able to pacify them in a day or two.

‘I have no problem with the decision of the high command as I am a dedicated worker who was elected representative for the past 25 years. But my community was somewhat annoyed and was saying that I deserved a better position in the party. They say that I now lead the All India Koli Samaj outfit which earlier was led by Ramnath Kovindi ji whom the BJP made president of India, and that Congress should also have honoured me,’ he said.

He said that the Gujarat chapter president of All India Koli Samaj, Chandravadan Pithawala has convened a meeting of the community in Ahmedabad on January 10 on the issue but he would not attend it in person.

Meanwhile, an insider of Kunvarji Bavaliya ‘s camp said that his leader would not take a drastic step like quitting the party very soon. He wanted to put pressure on the high command to make it feel the importance of the community which was quite sizeable in numbers. It is also being speculated that he could be given some important post in the organization or otherwise (like giving him the post of the chairman of the public accounts committee in the assembly a post traditionally hold by an MLA of the main opposition party) to pacify the community. The insider said that the top congress leadership has promised Kunvarji Bavaliya to compensate.

Four time MLA from Jasdan, a den of Congress and former MP Kunvarji Bavaliya had before the meeting in Ahmedabad on January 3 and 4 in connection with selection of the CLP leader had said that his seniority should not be overlooked by the party. His supporter Ishwar Bharadia had in a tone of warning said that if Kunvarji Bavaliya was ignored by the party, it would have to pay the price in Koli dominant Saurashtra in the coming elections including that of 2019 Loksabha polls.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had on January 6 decided to select Dhanani, a 3 time MLA from Amreli in Saurashtra, as the CLP leader. After that reports of Babaria’s annoyance and speculations about his leaving the party were doing the rounds.

DeshGujarat