AAP invites Congress' Hardik Patel to join party as Gujarat polls loom; 'Don't waste time'

After Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel publicly expressed displeasure with the party's functioning, he received an invite to join AAP on Friday. Known for spearheading the Patidar quota agitation, he formally joined Congress on March 12, 2019, and was appointed as the working president of the party's Gujarat unit on July 11, 2020. Speaking to the media, AAP's Gujarat state unit chief Gopal Italia stated that Patel will feel comfortable in a like-minded party like his. He also contended that the Sonia Gandhi-led party has no space for such young and enthusiastic leaders. 

Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia remarked, "If he does not like something in Congress, I feel that he should connect with a party that has the ideology and enthusiasm of the youth and which believes in a struggle just like him. Hardik Patel has reached this stage on his own after a struggle and has faced many challenges. AAP is the party that has the same thoughts like his. Instead of wasting his time by raising his complaints before Congress, he should move forward for the people of Gujarat by contributing his time here."

Hardik Patel miffed with Congress

In the 2017 Assembly polls, Congress bagged an impressive 77 seats in the 182-member Assembly as it was bolstered by the vociferous anti-BJP campaign of Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani. On Wednesday, the Gujarat Congress working president claimed that he had been sidelined in the party. He lamented that the Congress party had not utilised his skills despite the fact that the party benefited from the Patidar quota stir in the 2015 local body polls as well as the 2017 election. A day earlier, Patel made it clear that he is not seeking any post. 

Taking to Twitter, he said, "Truth should be spoken because I want the good of the party. The people of the state keep hope from us and if we cannot live up to that expectation, then what is the meaning of this leadership! To date, I have done the work of giving the best to the party and will continue to do so. I am hungry for work, not for the post."

Patel's comments come in the wake of the Supreme Court staying his conviction in a 2015 Visnagar rioting case. While the Gujarat High Court suspended his sentence in August 2018, it refused to stay his conviction in this case. As a convict facing a jail term of two years or more cannot contest an election, Patel was barred from contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The SC verdict implies that he can now contest the Gujarat Assembly election due later this year.