Gujarat: BJP insiders say Hardik Patel will join their party, AAP wooing him too

AHMEDABAD: In August 2015, a relatively unknown 22-year-old Patel youth catapulted into the spotlight of Gujarat’s political landscape as he thunderously demanded OBC reservation for his community from the dais of a jam-packed GMDC ground in Ahmedabad.

The over 1. 75-crore strong Patidar community including Leuva, Kadva, and others had traditionally been strong supporters of the ruling BJP until the agitation for quota came up. Hardik’s pitched agitation for reservation led to the BJP suffering shocking reverses in the district and taluka panchayat elections in December 2015, just a year after Gujarat sent all its 26 MPs from the BJP to make Narendra Modi the prime minister.

The ire of the Patidars was one of the key reasons that CM Anandiben Patel, who hailed from the same community, had to step down in 2016.
The party largely owes its existence to the Patels, who have used their social and economic muscle to finance, make, and break political rulers in Gujarat at least in the past three decades. The BJP felt the brunt of Patidars’ anger when the anti-party sentiment led to the Congress registering its best showing in over three decades during the Gujarat’s assembly elections in 2017.

The Congress won an impressive 77 seats, the best since its record 149-seat victory in 1985 under Madhavsinh Solanki. The BJP could not touch the psychologically reassuring zone of three digits and was reduced to double digit numbers – 99 seats.

Five years down the line, and with another assembly election round the bend, Hardik Patel finds himself at yet another significant crossroad in his political career. Hardik joined the Congress in 2019. Within 15 months, at the age of 26, he was appointed as the GPCC working president and was expected to breathe new life into the 135-year-old party’s state outfit. Three years later, the firebrand leader has given up on the grand old party. He resigned from the Congress on Wednesday, and there is a strong possibility that he will join the BJP and contest the December election on the lotus symbol.

In fact, top state leaders confided on Wednesday that “Hardik Patel is likely to join the BJP as early as next week in the presence of a few national level leaders”.
Meanwhile, speculations are also rife that Hardik Patel might join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). These rumours have gained ground in the wake of Hardik Patel’s statement that he will always be with popular Patidar leader Naresh Patel, who is being wooed by AAP.
Over the past couple of months, Hardik has openly spoken out against the Congress leadership and its style of functioning. He criticized them for neither adopting a combative approach nor “allowing” him to function.
The generational gap and the Congress’ style of functioning could be the reason for Hardik breaking ranks with the party. How well he assimilates into his new political cabal is a question that time will only answer. Yet, at 28, he has time on his side.