Ahead of joining the BJP today, Gujarat’s Patidar leader Hardik Patel said that he was “going to start a new chapter” from today, adding that he will be working under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Patel will be inducted into the party in the presence of Gujarat party president C R Paatil.
“With the spirit of national interest, state interest, public interest and social interest, I am going to start a new chapter from today. I will work as a small soldier in the noble work of service to the nation under the leadership of the successful Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Bhai Modi,” tweeted Patel.
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
Posters welcoming Patel to the BJP have been put outside the party outside in Gandhinagar. The former Congress leader performed ‘pooja’ at his residence in Ahmedabad.
“Today I’m starting a new chapter. I will work as a small soldier. We will do an event every 10 days in which the people including MLAs who are unhappy with Congress will be asked to join (BJP)…PM Modi is the pride of the entire world,” Patel said ahead of joining the saffron party.
Patel’s move comes ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections due later this year. The BJP has been in power in the state for over two decades.
The 28-year-old had in 2015 led a violent agitation seeking quota for his Patidar community and was a strong critic of the BJP in the past. The then BJP government in Gujarat had booked the firebrand leader in several cases, including on the charge of sedition.
However, Patel, who had joined the Congress in 2019 and was later made the state unit’s working president, quit the party earlier this month. Since then, there were speculations that he may join the ruling BJP.
Of late, he has been praising the BJP’s decision-making capacity and style of functioning, while severely criticising the Congress leadership.
Before quitting the Congress earlier this month, Hardik Patel had written a scathing letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, claiming the Congress “only played the role of a roadblock” over certain key issues in the country and was “merely reduced to opposing everything”.
He had come to limelight in 2015 when he led the agitation demanding reservation for the Patidar community members in government jobs and educational institutes. Ten people, including a policeman, were killed in the violence then and public properties and vehicles damaged.
He had been charged under various Indian Penal Code Sections, including 124(A) (sedition), 121(A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), in which he is out on bail since 2016. Hardik Patel had then positioned himself as a vocal critic of the BJP, accusing the party and its governments in the state and at the Centre of being against the poor, farmers and youth.
He later joined the opposition Congress in March 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. But, it was not possible for him to contest the parliamentary election due to his conviction in a rioting case.
Notably, the Supreme Court last month stayed his conviction in a rioting and arson case. The BJP government also recently took steps to withdraw several cases lodged against Hardik Patel and others in connection with the 2015 quota agitation.
