Hardik Patel joins BJP, promises to serve as ‘soldier’ under Modi

Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who quit the Congress last month, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, months ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections.

Addressing reporters, Patel said his fight to seek reservation in government jobs and colleges for his community under the other backward classes (OBC) category ended in 2019 when the Centre approved a 10% quota for economically backward classes (EBC) in general category.

“My fight for reservation had ended then. The EBC quota includes not just the Patidar community but other communities as well,” Patel, who joined the party in the presence of state chief CR Patil at Kamalam, the Gujarat BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar, said.

The 28-year-old said he joined the BJP without any expectation of getting a ticket for the upcoming polls. He said he would serve as a “common worker” and “soldier” of the party.

Patel said he would work as a “small soldier” under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “My father had helped the BJP from 1990 to 1995. When I entered the BJP party office, people around me said ‘welcome home’,” he said.

The ruling BJP government is on the path of nation building, Patel said, adding that he will work as a party worker for its development. “I urge others also to leave their parties and join (BJP) in this nation building work,” he said.

The Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader, who had joined the Congress a little over three years ago and resigned on March 18, said he left the party as it “does not respect people’s sentiments and distances itself from religious issues concerning crores of Hindus”.

In his one-page resignation letter last month, Patel was sharply critical of the Congress and its leaders who he said, did not have a roadmap for the people, were non-serious and behaved as if they hated Gujarat and Gujaratis.

Patel shot into limelight after he addressed a public meeting in Ahmedabad’s GMDC ground on August 25, 2015. About half a million people were estimated to have attended the address in which Patel had criticized the ruling BJP government and laid out his community’s demands.

The rally took a violent turn after clashes between the police and the people gathered at the venue, which led to the detention of several Patidar leaders. Fourteen people were killed in subsequent violence that followed across the state after Patel’s brief detention by the police.

Asked about the lives lost and the damage done to public property as buses and other properties were torched by mobs, Patel said he was not involved in the violence.

“I personally did not set out to torch vehicles or destroy public property. The miscreants who did this should be booked and punished as per the law,” he said.

Patel said he has requested the government for providing employment to family members of those who died in the violence. He added that he would personally ensure that the family of the deceased get some employment till his request with the state government is fulfilled.

The Patidar leader said there are thirty-two cases against him (including two on charges of sedition) and he is hopeful of being acquitted in all of them

Former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel was also present at the induction ceremony.