Ahmedabad, Oct 24 (DHNS): The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party called OBC youth leader Alpesh Thakore joining the Congress as a sad day for the party that was over 100-year-old.

“It seems that the Central leadership has no faith in the organisational strength or trust in its state leadership. A national-level vice president of Congress and soon to be president had to fly down from Delhi to welcome a small-time leader from one community and one particular area into the party fold,” Nitin Patel, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister told media persons.

BJP was reacting to Thakore formally joining the Congress after a massive show of strength in Gandhinagar at ‘Navsarjan Gujarat – Janaadesh Maharally’ on Monday.

“All the talk at the function was akin to KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi & Muslim) theory of the past…Instead of unifying all the communities in the state, the Congress is trying to separate people by pushing forth a few communities. They have put a question mark on peace and prosperity of the state,” Nitin Patel said.

The KHAM theory was attributed to senior Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki, who as a chief minister cobbled up an alliance of these four dominant communities to help the Congress win a record 149 or 182 seats in the state Assembly in the 1980s.

The BJP, which perhaps fears of the repeat and the dent in its target of winning over 150 seats this time, said the Congress was again trying to segregate people on the basis of communities just to garner votes.

“None of the speakers at the function spoke a word about either Patels or upper castes and their welfare. The only talk was about SC/ST, OBCs and Muslims,” he said.