New Delhi: He was one of the Congress’ discoveries’ in the western state of Gujarat to take on the might of the BJP. Now Hardik Patel seems to have gotten disillusioned with the grand old party.
“My position in the party is that of a newly married groom who has been made to undergo nasbandi (vasectomy),” he said to an English newspaper.
He also questioned the Congress’s “delay” in taking a call on Khodaldham trust president and powerful Patidar leader Naresh Patel, who is being wooed by all parties in the state, suggesting that it was an insult to the entire community.
Like many disgruntled Congress leaders, Hardik also feels ignored.
“I am not invited to any of the meetings of the PCC, they don’t consult me before taking any decisions, then what is the point of this post?” Hardik said.
“Recently they announced 75 new general secretaries and 25 new vice-presidents, did they even consult me, that Hardik bhai, do you think there is any strong leader missing from the list?” he added.
Before Gujarat state assembly polls in 2015 and later in 2017, the Congress party had laid the foundation of the Gujarat election on casteism, a reference to Congress hobnobbing with the likes of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani.
Among them, Alpesh was the leader of the Koli Thakor community in Gujarat. He founded the Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena as well as OBC, SC, ST Ekta Manch. He had joined Congress in 2017 and won from the Radhanpur constituency but later joined the BJP in 2019.
Jignesh Mevani is an Independent legislator, while Hardik Patel, the youngster and Patidar leader who was expected to play big in Congress, is now feeling sidelined and ignored.
Lately, Hardik Patel, also state working president, had indicated his willingness to contest the elections after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2015 case.
Veteran Chhabildas Mehta was the last Congress chief minister of Gujarat between February 1994 to March 1995.
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