Hardik Patel’s resignation scripted by BJP, says Gujarat PCC president
The Hindu
Gujarat Congress unit president Jagdish Thakor claimed Hardik Patel quit Congress fearing jail in sedition cases
A day after Mr. Hardik Patel left the Congress, the party's Gujarat unit president Jagdish Thakor on May 19 claimed that he took the step as he was afraid that he might have to go to jail in sedition cases registered against him.
Mr. Thakor also claimed that Mr. Patel might join the ruling BJP.
The Congress leader made these claims soon after Mr. Patel held a press conference, in which he alleged that he was not given any meaningful work despite being the working president of the party's state unit. Mr. Patel also accused the party of having no vision and its state unit being too much into "caste-based politics".
Mr. Patel resigned from the Congress on Wednesday, months ahead of the Assembly polls in Gujarat, claiming that top leaders of the party were distracted by their mobile phones and that Gujarat Congress leaders were more interested in arranging chicken sandwiches for them. Mr. Patel was made the working president in July 2020, a year after he was inducted into the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
Talking to reporters in Rajkot, Mr. Thakor alleged that whatever Mr. Patel spoke during the press conference earlier in the day and what was written in his resignation letter was scripted by the ruling BJP.
"Hardik feared that he may have to go to jail in sedition cases if he stays in Congress. Hence, to save himself from the possible punishment, he decided to quit Congress and he might join the BJP as well," Mr. Thakor claimed.
Mr. Patel, who once led the Patidar community's agitation for reservation, faces nearly 25 criminal cases in Gujarat, including sedition FIRs registered one each in Ahmedabad and Surat.
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