Now, people are looking at issues, not faces: SAPAKS chief

BHOPAL: Much before the model code of conduct was announced, a bearded and bespectacled retired IAS officer had been giving sleepless nights to BJP on the issue of caste politics. Hiralal Trivedi, a retired information commissioner, has upset the BJP and Congress game plans, and none of the biggies are sure exactly how to handle the upper caste surge.

When the two big political rivals are struggling to maintain equilibrium of the caste equation, Trivedi travels extensively across the state to maintain the momentum of the SAPAKS “uprising”. “Now it is very difficult to stop people. Log ab mudde dekh rahe hainand not faces and political parties,” Trivedi told TOI.

The soft-spoken former bureaucrat is credited with bringing two hardliners of Rajasthan on the same dais. One of his lieutenants said: “For the first time, heads of two rival groups of Karni Sena -- Lokendra Singh Kalvi of Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi of Shree Raastriya Rajput Karni Sena -- shared the platform at the Bhopal rally of SAPAKS. Hiralal Trivedi persuaded them to come together.”

Trivedi is travelling more than 100km every day these days -- mostly driving himself — to meet supporters and keep the SAPAKS wheels running. “Our rallies in Ujjain, Bhopal and other parts of the state and the continuing black flag protests have made life miserable for politicians. It is a testimony to public anger, he claimed.

“Our fight against SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act amendment continues, more and more people are joining us. We plan a big campaign in the state from October 24,” he said.