A day after forcing Olpad MLA Mukesh Patel to leave the campaigning midway, a group of women hurled eggs at BJP workers during a door-to-door campaign in their residential society on Thursday. A group of around 20 BJP workers, including men and women, had to beat a hasty retreat after eggs were thrown at them in Gokulnagar Society near Rachna Circle. The campaigners included former municipal councillors. The residents also resorted to heavy slogan shouting.
"Patidar residents of various societies have opposed BJP campaigning in their areas. At Gokulnagar, eggs were thrown by women even before PAAS members reached there," co-convener of PAAS, Surat, Dharmik Malaviya said.
BJP leaders, however, tried to put up a brave face and refuted PAAS claims of eggs being thrown. "No eggs were thrown on BJP campaigning team. At Viratnagar, some Congress members shouted slogans claiming to be Patidar youths. These protests are a handiwork of the Congress," former BJP councillor from Varachha Babu Jirawala said.
In fact, Jirawala, too, had a run-in when he tried to hug a Patidar man in Viratnagar. The man angrily rejected his gesture and in the melee his hand hit Jirwala. Jirwala's cellphone fell on the ground amid the confusion as slogans of 'Jai Sardar Jai Patidar' rented the air. Protesters even tore off the election pamphlets that were being distributed to voters and some were even thrown on the BJP workers.
Many societies in Varachha, Katargam and Sarthana areas put up banners at the entry gates asking BJP workers not to enter for campaigning.
In Jay Yogeshwar Society in Sarthana, a banner with Sardar Patel's photo and a big red cross on BJP's lotus symbol read that Section 144 (prohibitory orders) has been imposed. Another banner in Avanti Society at Mata Wadi in Varachha instructed BJP workers not to come and "beg" for votes since none of their elected representatives like MPs, MLAs and councillors have cared to visit them in the last five years.
A residential society in Katargam also put up a banner raising the issue of delay in regularizing their Ambikanagar Society on Ved Road. The residents held the government responsible for putting them in a situation where they will have to pay premium charges to get their plots regularized.
Earlier, Varachha MLA Kishore alias Kumar Kanani, a Patidar himself, earned the wrath of the community members who stormed his office and demanded its closure barely two hours after it was inaugurated.
by Yagnesh Bharat Mehta via Surat News, Latest Surat News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India
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