A day after resigning from the Congress, firebrand Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Thursday fired yet another salvo against the party terming it as castiest and asked people of Gujarat not to trust the party.
In his first interaction after resigning from the party, Patel said he apologies to the people of Gujarat for seeking votes for the Congress in 2017. He, however, claimed that he has not decided which political party he is to join. “When I decided, I will convey the decision proudly,” he said, adding that the decision would be on the basis of doing good work for the people.
If Patel’s mood was any indication, the Congress in Gujarat is in for a trouble as it will have to now keep facing salvos from him as well. Patel said it does not look like that the Congress is going to come to power for another 20 years. He alleged that the party has done nothing to stop more than 117 leaders, including MLAs to quit since 2012.
Whether it is Alpesh Thakor (OBC leader) or other youth, they all have resigned as they were unhappy. The party has never let any leader grow taller may that be Narhari Amin or Vittal Radadiya, he observed. At the national level, he named Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sunil Jhakar among few who have quit the party. Taking an indirect dig at the Congress’ Chintan Shivir that he skipped, sighting pre-planned programmes, Patel said the Congress now needs to do chinta (worry) instead of Chintan. Chinta in Gujarati means worry.
He said that one gets to know the reality only after experiencing the state of affairs from close quarters. Patel said he regretted wasting three years of his life and recalled that his late father Bharatbhai had once asked him if he was not in the wrong place. Patel went on to add that he had replied to his father that things would be alright with the passage of time.
The face of the 2015 Patidar agitation questioned as to what the people of Gujarat can expect from the Congress when except for Shaktisinh Gohil (Rajya Sabha MP), none of the Congress leaders visited him to mourn the death of his father. On his first death anniversary this year, state Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma, state party president Jagdish Thakor and one more person came, he said, pointing out that it had become necessary for them.
He claimed that every single day he has sent messages to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi of the “injustices” meted out to him.
The Patidar leader denied that he had quit the party or would be joining a particular party due to any pressure or fearing court cases against him. He said he was hopeful that judgments in the cases would come. “Jignesh Mevani has also been demanding that cases against the Dalits be withdrawn. Does it also mean that he has done some setting with the BJP,” he asked. Patel said that he was sad that he has left the party workers behind.
Opening up on Naresh Patel, chief of Khodaldham Trust whom the Congress is trying to get in its fold, Patel claimed he had a meeting with him a couple of days ago. “I appraised him of the situation in the Congress and warned that it should not happen that like the party made use of me in 2017 elections, they make use of you,” Patel said, having told Naresh.
While he did not reveal which party he is to join, speculations continued to remain rife that the BJP might be the preference.
And some indications were that he spoke about Hindutva, he spoke about a Gujarati being a Prime Minister. Patel even went on to say that Adani and Ambani had become rich due to their respective hard work and the Congress continues to criticize them.
He also claimed that he had asked the state party’s leadership to do something constructive for the Ram Temple. The suggestion was not accepted, he said, pointing out that he had suggesting saying that people would like the Congress party.
