The Congress on Thursday appointed Gujarat MLA Alpesh Thakor to the post of secretary for Bihar, said a press release. The party also appointed seven other secretaries for Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Thakor, who is from the Kshatriya-Thakor community, won the Assembly elections in December from Radhanpur seat in Gujarat, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Solanki Lavingi Muljiji Thakor by 14,857 votes. He is the convener of the Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena and the OBC SC/ST Ekta Manch. He had joined the Congress in October 2017.

Thakor first shot to prominence after he launched a protest against liquor consumption in January 2016. In the run-up to the Assembly elections in December, he had made lack of educational opportunities the focal point of his campaign.