Former chief minister of the state Shankarsinh Vaghela today addressed a press conference and spoke about the outrage caused by the statement of Parshottam Rupala of the Rajput community in the state, and said this issue demands cancellation of his candidature.

BJP Rajkot seat candidate Rupala recently made a controversial statement on the Rajput community. Reacting to this, Vaghela said, “Mota Saheb (PM Narendra Modi) will also take a decision on the situation, he will have to answer for the hurt sentiments of the women and why no decision was taken over the comments.” He added, “Had Kshatriyas not merged their princely states into the union, there would not have been any elections.”

Vaghela said that it does not suit the BJP to talk in such a manner, speaking in public without any consideration. 

He also added that a public apology would not harm the BJP. It is not in the BJP’s culture to talk about women this way, making comments about Shashi Tharoor’s girlfriend, keeping quiet on Manipur and Delhi’s issues on women. This is not a fight between Patel, Kshatriyas, BJP, and Congress anymore. BJP should have probed the issue and should have changed the candidate by now.

On the Rupala issue, he said that Rupala’s Rajkot office was going to be shut down any time, but his comments have just invited the inevitable earlier.

He said that if the BJP is not changing the candidate, it shows that the party has a ‘we will do whatever we want’ attitude. This time around, the people of society have been hurt, and therefore, politics should be put aside. 

He said that the mindset of BJP is becoming anti-Kshatriya. 

And if the candidate is not changed, we should understand that the high command agrees with the candidate, he said during the presser.

He added that if the protestors, including women, are arrested, and cases are filed against them, it will show a deteriorated state.

Talking about changing politics of BJP, he said, BJP used to be different, it did not believe in ‘use and throw’ before.