Ahmed Patel with Congress leaders at the Surat event. Express
Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel on Tuesday hit out at the ruling BJP as he came out in support of Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel, who was arrested on Monday in Patan on charges of assault and loot, and urged party workers to stay united to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Assembly election.
Addressing a huge gathering of Congress workers from south Gujarat here, Ahmed Patel accused the BJP of dividing communities to grab power. “Hardik Patel was protesting for injustice done to the Patidar community in Gujarat. They (the government) killed 12 innocent Patidar youths and when Hardik Patel protested, he was arrested and sent to jail. Even now, one way or other way, he is being targeted and sent behind bars. They are dividing us on communal and caste lines… BJP is using unethical ways to gain power as they are power hungry. They even threaten to use the CBI and I-T against rival leaders as there is no other strategy left,” said Ahmed Patel, who is also the political secretary of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki also backed Hardik. “I want to warn them that when we will come to power, we will take legal actions against the BJP leaders for misusing police. They claim that Hardik Patel is a Congress agent. I want to say that he is fighting not for the Congress but for his community,” Solanki said.
The event titled, ‘Satya Vijay Sammelan’, was organised by the party to felicitate the 43 Congress MLAs who voted for Ahmed Patel in the recent Rajya Sabha election. “The victory of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha election is the trailer, the entire film is pending… I see the enthusiasm and faith in you people and I believe that we will definitely win the upcoming Assembly elections. Today is Satya Vijay Sammelan, and on this day we have to think and analyse what more should we do for the Assembly election. For a political party, an organisation is necessary and in it, unity is necessary… We should keep aside all our differences and fight unitedly, and I assure you that no power will be able to defeat the Congress,” Ahmed Patel said.
Citing that Adil Shah, Sultan of Bijapur with an army of 12,000 men, was defeated by Chhatrapati Shivaji who had an army of barely 500 men, he said, “For victory, strategy is necessary and it should be systematic…we have very few days left…we have to keep the target to win Gujarat. For that we have to work hard.” He also took on the Modi government for taking the “immature step of demonetisation” and GST.
