Gujarat Assembly elections 2022: Patidar leader Hardik Patel joins BJP

Patidar leader Hardik Patel joined the BJP on Thursday, days after quitting the Congress. He was welcomed in the party by BJP Gujarat unit president C R Patil and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.

પ્રદેશ કાર્યાલય 'શ્રી કમલમ્' ખાતે પ્રદેશ અધ્યક્ષ શ્રી @CRPaatil ની અધ્યક્ષતામાં કોંગ્રેસના ભૂતપૂર્વ નેતા શ્રી @HardikPatel_ તેમના સમર્થકો સાથે ભારતીય જનતા પાર્ટીમાં જોડાયા. pic.twitter.com/TLTJpBhwhr

— BJP Gujarat (@BJP4Gujarat) June 2, 2022

“Today, I am going to start a new chapter keeping in mind the interests of the nation, region, society and community. I will work as a small soldier in the development work of the nation being carried out under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Hardik tweeted earlier on Thursday.

राष्ट्रहित, प्रदेशहित, जनहित एवं समाज हित की भावनाओं के साथ आज से नए अध्याय का प्रारंभ करने जा रहा हूँ। भारत के यशस्वी प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेन्द्र भाई मोदी जी के नेतृत्व में चल रहे राष्ट्र सेवा के भगीरथ कार्य में छोटा सा सिपाही बनकर काम करूँगा।

— Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) June 2, 2022

He resigned from that party on 18 May, after claiming in a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that the party “only played to the role of a roadblock” over certain key issues in the country and was “merely reduced to opposing everything”.

Earlier in the day, while speaking to reporters, Patel, 28, said that he would launch a campaign to wean away Congress leaders in Gujarat. Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the pride of the world, the young leader said after joining the BJP he would do an event every 10 days to ask Congress leaders, including MLAs, to join the BJP.

“I have never put forth any demands before anyone for any post. I am joining the BJP to work. I believe the Congress party does not want to do any sort of work. I urge the leaders of the other parties to come and join the BJP. PM Modi is the pride of the entire world,” he said to ANI before officially joining the BJP.

Hardik catapulted to the political centre stage in 2015 when he spearheaded the Patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat, building the campaign in the run-up to the 2017 state Assembly elections.

Initially, Patel demanded the OBC status for the Patidar community. Subsequently, it was transformed into a demand for reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). His emergence on the political scene in the state put the then chief minister, Anandiben Patel, in a spot. In 2016, Anandiben Patel announced her resignation from the post.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patel joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. He, was then, appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee in Gujarat in 2020. However, he accused Congress leadership of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party in 2022.

On 18 May this year, Patel resigned from the party and stated that Gujarat Congress leaders were least bothered to address real issues of the state but were more focused on ensuring that the leaders who come from Delhi to Gujarat get “chicken sandwich” on time.

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With input from agencies

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