Ex-Congress Leader Hardik Patel Set To Join BJP Today

Hardik Patel resigned from Congress as working president as well as a primary member of the party on May 18.

Former Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel to join BJP (Source: File Photo)

New Delhi: Former Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday in presence of state party president C R Patil and former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel at noon. "It is confirmed that Hardik Patel will join the BJP on June 2 in the presence of state president C R Patil," BJP’s state spokesperson Yagnesh Dave told PTI.

After joining Congress in 2019, Hardik resigned from the party's primary membership on May 18. Since then, Patel has attacked the Congress on various forums, calling it "anti-Patidar and anti-Gujarat".

Hardik Patel shot to the limelight in 2015 after he led an agitation seeking reservation for the Patidar community in Gujarat. He was made the Gujarat Congress working president in July 2020.

Earlier, Hardik Patel hit out at the Congress leadership for their alleged "hatred towards Hindus and Lord Ram".

In a series of tweets, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) convener, Hardik said, "I had said earlier also that the Congress party works to hurt the sentiments of the people, it is always trying to damage the faith of Hindu religion.

"I want to ask the Congress and its leaders as in what enmity do you have with Lord Shri Ram? Why hate Hindus so much? After centuries, a temple of Lord Shri Ram is being built in Ayodhya, yet the leaders of Congress keep making statements against Lord Shri Ram."

In his resignation letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Hardik Patel alleged that Congress "only played to the role of a roadblock" over certain key issues in the country and was "merely reduced to opposing everything".

The Patidar leader said that whenever he raised issues of the people of Gujarat, senior Congress leaders were busy checking messages on their mobile phones, and some leaders were "enjoying abroad" when the party and the country needed them.