Hardik, 2 more ‘all set to join’ Cong in Gujarat

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, October 21

The BJP in Gujarat is in a quandary with the state’s three youth icons — OBC Manch convener Alpesh Thakore, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani — who together have a sway over 70 per cent of the voters, deciding to join the Congress.

Soon after state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki issued an open invitation to the trio to join the party, he made arrangements for their impromptu meeting with AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. After the meeting, Thakore  announced that “satisfied” with the assurances given by the Congress vice-president, he had decided to join the Congress. He claimed Hardik and Mevani would follow suit and they would jointly fight the “anti-poor, anti-Dalit” BJP in Gujarat. He said they would formally join the Congress at a rally on Monday. 

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 A worried BJP tried to thwart the Congress move with party spokesman Bharat Pandya asking the Congress to spell out under which constitutional provisions was it promising reservation to the Patels. He accused the Congress of “misleading” the Patels and of blocking a BJP-sponsored Bill in the Rajya Sabha for the welfare of weaker sections.

While young Hardik, 23, has emerged as the face of the Patel community, Thakore, the son of a former Congress MLA, is a prominent leader of the OBCs who constitute more than 50 per cent of the total voters in the state. The flogging of Dalits in Una town by self-styled cow vigilantes last year saw the emergence of Mevani, a young lawyer, as their most vocal leader.

Solanki said if voted to power, the Congress would adopt a resolution in the Assembly to provide 20 per cent reservation to “other needy communities” and send it to Parliament. An agitation would be launched if the BJP government at the Centre rejected the resolution, he added.