Gujarat polls: Hardik Patel's Patidars played tough, delayed Congress list
New Delhi: The Congress Party and the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on Sunday said they have reached an understanding papering over their differences on seat-sharing for the coming Gujarat Assembly elections and a quota for Patels in the state.
It was apparently due to these differences and those with OBC leader Alpesh Thakore, who had recently joined the party, that the Congress was unable to release its first list of candidates till now.
On Sunday, Congress releases its first list of 77 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly election, two days before the last date for filing nominations which is November 21. The BJP has already released two lists of its Gujarat candidates.
“Had fruitful discussion with PAAS convenors in a positive environment. We have clarified all their queries and the meeting has ended on a positive note,” Gujarat PCC chief Bharat Singh Solanki tweeted on Sunday after marathon meetings with the PAAS leaders in New Delhi and Ahmedabad.
In Ahmedabad, the PAAS leadership said the Congress Party had accepted their demand for quotas in jobs and education for the Patidar community and the details on how this would be achieved would be shared by Mr Patel from Rajkot on Monday. Mr Patel is due to address a rally in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s constituency in Rajkot on Monday.
One of the PAAS convenors, Lalit Vasoya, declared that the Congress was offering him a ticket from Dhroaji seat and that he will fill up his nomination papers on Monday.
While the PAAS, led by Mr Patel, had demanded around 20 seats from the Congress, Mr Thakore, who has recently joined the Congress, has demanded 12 seats.
The Congress has been trying to draw a delicate caste balance in its list of candidates for the state as it is banking heavily on Patels in order to dislodge the BJP from power in the state after 22 years.
Groupism and internal factionalism within the party is supposed to be another reason behind the delay in the list. The BJP, on the other hand, has announced 106 candidates out of the total 182 seats that have been released so far.
