Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel is set to meet Congress vice-president on 3 November in Surat, revealed Patidar leader Jayesh Patel, according to media reports.
File image of Hardik Patel. AFP
Speaking to CNN News18, Jayesh Patel, a key aid of Hardik, said that the two leaders will meet next week and the issue of reservation for the Patidar community will be on their agenda. Denying any meeting between them before, he clarified that Hardik had met Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on 23 October and not Rahul.
He further blamed the BJP of hatching a conspiracy for spreading rumours. Hardik, who also denied meeting Rahul before, said on Tuesday that he will meet the Congress leader during Rahul's next tour of the state.
Meanwhile, TV channels aired CCTV footage from outside the five star hotel which showed Patel entering and leaving the hotel, with some reports claiming that Rahul was also present at the hotel where Hardik and Gehlot met.
"It had got very late, so I put up at the hotel and left in the morning," the Patidar leader clarified. He stressed, "It is absolutely wrong that I met Rahul Gandhi. I will meet when he comes next.
And if I want to meet him, I don't have to do so secretly. I am not meeting a terrorist, or meeting Nawaz Sharif at midnight like Narendra Modi did."
Soon after the footage was released, Gehlot tweeted that hardik had come to meet him, and in a series of posts on the microblogging website accused the BJP government of snooping on them. "Why CCTV footage was taken by IB n police from Hotel? Is the right to privacy, sole proprietorship of JayAmitShah?" Gehlot said in another tweet.
The rooms which hv been booked in my name are being checked. We are openly saying, we have met them n will keep meeting them in future too. — Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) October 23, 2017
Hardik alleged in a tweet, "BJP is expert in snooping. They used to snoop on Sanjay Joshi (BJP leader) and now they are snooping on me."
भाजपा वाले जासूसी करने में माहिर हैं।
संजय जोशी की सीडी और महिला की जासूसी,अब मेरी जासूसी कर रहे हैं।#डेमेज_डेमोक़्रेसि— Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) October 24, 2017
Earlier, at a public meeting in Mandal in North Gujarat, Hardik had said, "If BJP is a mahachor, the Congress is a chor. And if a chor's help is needed to trounce a mahachor, we will do that also."
With inputs from agencies
Published Date: Oct 25, 2017 08:53 pm | Updated Date: Oct 25, 2017 09:19 pm
