Amreli

A big rally of politically dominant Patel community along with Bramhasamaj (Brahmins) and Raghuvanshi community, who have also joined the bandwagon of reservation-demand for their respective communities, threw the traffic completely out of gear in this small town of Saurashtra region in Gujarat.

The rally with over 30 thousand people of all the three communities went off peacefully without any untoward incident.

The three rallies being termed a joint ‘Maha-rally’ started at around 1030 hrs this morning from Hiramoti Chowk and passing through Bheedbhanjan Mahadev Chowk, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Chowk and Nagnath Chowk reached the collector’s office where three separate memorandum were handed over. The overwhelming crowd coupled with large police force deployment brought the traffic on Liliya road and other adjoining plush areas of the city to a complete standstill for over two hours. The rally covered a distance of around two kilometers in the middle of the city.

Amreli has a substantial population of Patidars or patels. Their representatives in the rally today asked the state government to send recommendation to the centre for including their community in the OBC category.

Collector H R Suthar later said that Patels and Raghuvanshis demanded their inclusion in the other backward classes (OBC) category while the Brahmins asked for reservation on the basic of economical backwardness.

Meanwhile, the Patel community also staged similar pro-reservation rallies rallies under the same banner of Patidar Anamat Aandolan (Patidar or Patel reservation movement) in Kadi and Unjha taluka of Mehsana district in North Gujarat and some other places of the state today.

– DeshGujarat