New Delhi: After taking some tough steps, Patidar leader Hardik Patel condemned it on Thursday and said that he will support the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat. He said that he will support the Congress because the party “openly supports the Patidars”.
The 24-year-old quota activist demanded for several days to support publicly with the support of the main opposition party of the state that how it is planning to fulfill the demand for reservation of Patel or Patidar community in government or jobs, if it comes to power, Gujarat.
Although the Congress has not yet fulfilled its demand on the reservation, Patel said that he is telling members of his community that they have to vote the BJP out of power. That, Mr. Patel, who had canceled his scheduled meeting with Mr. Gandhi, has been talking with Congress leaders for the past several days. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is on a three-day election tour of Gujarat.
The question is, does it mean that he will demand a vote for Congress, Patidar said, “People are wise. When I ask them to vote the BJP out, they know who to vote for.
Dismissing one of the allegations of selling, he said that those people are not opposed to actual petals, but the BJP has supported it. He accused the ruling BJP of the state – Patel’s choice for the party for a year – betrayal with the community not reaching its quota demand.
At least six Patel organizations have accused Hardik politically of making changes in their reservation, and it is not certain that they will be able to give a big share of the Patel support of the Congress.
The Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal can go to Gujarat next week to talk to Mr. Patel, perhaps to get a legal opinion on the issue of reservation.
That, under the existing reservation scheme, OBC, which is around 40% of Gujarat’s population, has 27% reservation. Apart from this, the Scheduled Caste has seven percent reservation and 15 percent of Scheduled Tribes. This means that there is already 49 percent reservation in Gujarat, one percent less than the maximum permission of the Supreme Court.
The Congress has said, appealing to young leaders like Patel and Alpesh Thokore who represent the communities that are protesting against the BJP government in Gujarat. Dalit leader Jignesh Patel has refused to join the party. The BJP has been in power in the state for the last 22 years.
