Meet Rupsing Thakor, Gandhinagar’s young mayor who ticks BJP’s GenZ and Thakor boxes

He is 29 years old, owns a clothing showroom in Gandhinagar, and says that he will “take forward the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a Viksit Bharat by 2047”. Rupsing Ranaji Thakor, the youngest mayor of Gujarat’s capital city, presided over the first meeting of the general board on Tuesday (November 3).

Thakor, a first time councillor, represents Ward 4, which covers the Dholakuva-Palaj area, and includes Indroda, home to the ruins of an ancient 15th century fort on the bank of the Sabarmati river. The BJP swept 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation election held on October 11, a victory that came ahead of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled in the city early next year.

Five seats went to the Congress, and one to an Independent. The state capital forms a significant part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah. The city is also home to Gujarat International Finance-Tec (GIFT) City, the state’s first smart city and financial centre.

(GIFT City has its own notified administrative area.) Rupsing, who studied until Class 10, belongs to the politically influential Thakor community, which is included under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The post of mayor was reserved for OBCs this year.

Rupsing is also Gandhinagar’s first Thakor mayor. This was the fourth election to the civic body after it was set up in 2010; elections were earlier held in 2011, 2016, and 2021. Mahendrasinh Rana, Pravin Patel, Rita Patel, Hitesh Makwana, and Meeraben Patel were mayors of the city earlier.

Thakor’s rise to mayorship is part of the BJP’s strategy to promote younger and GenZ leaders as the faces of the party ahead of the Assembly elections due next year, several BJP leaders told The Indian Express. Thakor’s family has an old association with the BJP, and Rupsing himself has been formally associated with the party since the age of 18.

He has earlier been a ward president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP’s youth wing. “I will take forward the incomplete work of the BJP in Gandhinagar. I will also work for the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India developed by 2047,” Thakor told The Indian Express.

A political observer said, “With Rupsing’s appointment, the BJP has aimed at two targets with one stone, GenZ and the Thakor community. They are signalling that the youth are getting prominence in the party. At the same time, they are also trying to woo the Thakor community, which has the potential to bring dividends for the party in the Assembly election.” Alpesh Thakor, founder of the Kshatriya-Thakor Sena, said: “This (appointment) is a major decision of the party.

I thank the party for giving representation to a young boy of the Thakor community, which has a huge population.” Alpesh rose to fame as the leader of an OBC agitation against Hardik Patel’s 2015 Patidar quota agitation.

Both are now BJP MLAs; Alpesh represents Gandhinagar South, and Hardik Viramgam in the state Assembly. Thakors have influence in Assembly seats in north and central Gujarat. Alpesh said Rupsing’s appointment could benefit the BJP at seats around Gandhinagar, where Thakors make up a significant chunk of electors.

On Tuesday, Anjana Mehta and Mahendra Patel were appointed deputy mayor and chairperson of the Standing Committee respectively. Parimal A Dabhi works with The Indian Express as Chief of Bureau, focusing on the state of Gu...

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