Rift in Gujarat Congress ahead of the Assembly polls is now out in open. Party's Gujarat unit working president Hardik Patel, who led the Patidar agitation in Gujarat ahead of the 2017 polls, has heaped praise on the Bharatiya Janata Party for decisions like scrapping Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and fulfiling the Ram Mandir promise in Ayodhya.
Patel while maintaining that he is also a 'proud' Hindu, said that the saffron party has a "leadership with terrific decision-making ability", according to several media reports. He said that BJP leaders work a lot on their organisation.
"I am not saying this because I am upset with the Congress," he said, adding that just like a phone gets updated, the "BJP is also bringing new updates in the same manner".
When asked whether he is mulling switching the party, Patel responded by saying he has kept his options 'open'.
“I am very clear on my stance that I will be doing what I can to take Gujarat forward. Many people link me with Kejriwal. Congress, AAP, BJP... I have all options open," he said.
Just a few weeks ago, Patel, who first rose on Gujarat's political scene as the leader of the Patidar quota agitation, had said he had been “sidelined and harassed” in the Congress, and local leaders wanted him to leave the party. Despite his representation to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi several times, no action was taken, he had said, while also adding that he was not planning to leave the party yet.
Patel had earlier as well dropped hints that all is not well in the Gujarat Congress. After his father passed away in May 2021, he had said no leader from the Gujarat Congress visited him even though he received condolence calls from other parties' leaders. Hardik Patel was appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) in July 2020.
Reacting to Patel's comments, Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil said, "It is good that Hardik Patel has spoken this in public. Many people don't speak.”
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