In a dramatic turn of events in the poll-bound Gujarat, the political equations in the state seem to be in a very critical condition with every passing hour.
Gujarat will be facing the assembly elections before 18 Dec and ahead of the polls, the nervousness of the ruling BJP is growing with every passing day as it is fearing to lose the polls after ruling for 22 years. The main reason for the rising anti-incumbency is the discontentment of the Patidars, Dalits, OBCs and the tribals.
While BJP is trying hard to keep the throne, Congress on another hand, taking advantage of the situation is playing tactfully to lure as many voters as possible. A few days back Gujarat Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki had invited all the community leaders, including Alpesh Thakor, Jignesh Mewani and Hardik Patel to fight the elections against BJP. Alpesh Thakor accepting the offer has joined Congress while Hardik only indirectly extended his support.
On Sunday, Patidar leader from North Gujarat, Narendra Patel revealed in a press conference that BJP had offered him 1 crore to join the party. He said that all the game planning was done by former Patidar leader Varun Patel, who had recently joined BJP. Varun took Narendra Patel to meet Jitubhai Vaghani and few other BJP officers, where he was given 10 lakh in hand and promised more 90 lakh after he joined the party.
Reacting to the revelations of Narendra Patel, the Patidar leader on Monday took a dig at the BJP in a chain of tweets. He said that the people of Gujarat are not so cheap that they can be bought by the BJP, the party has insulted the people and revenge will be taken. He also alleged that BJPP had kept aside a budget of Rs 500 crore to offer to all those leaders who were willing to join the party. He tweeted that he is not fighting against BJP, instead, the fight is between 6 crore people of Gujarat and BJP.
https://twitter.com/HardikPatel_/status/922342986905767936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/HardikPatel_/status/922354988478881793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/HardikPatel_/status/922355543414657024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Adding to the momentum Hardik Patel, today also held a closed-door meeting with Congress’ Gujarat in-charge Ashok Gehlot, giving him the details of the situation.
As per the latest updates, following his meeting with Ashok Gehlot, it is also being assumed that the Patidar leader also met the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in a hotel in Ahmedabad. According to the sources OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who recently joined Congress was also present for the meeting.
Though the whereabouts of the meeting are not known as for now, but these closed-door meeting can completely change the course of politics in Gujarat if the Patidars extend their support to Congress, which is quite possible after the recent incident of trying to buy the Patidar leader.
Meanwhile, Congress is strengthening its relations with other leaders, the nervous BJP denied the allegations of offering a bribe to the Patidar leader. BJP claimed that this whole scene of Narendra Patel first joining BJP and hours later putting such allegations on the party, is all a choreographed by Congress. BJP spokesperson from Gujarat, Bharat Pandya said it is “wrong to announce that one wants to join BJP and then come up with these allegations hours later.”
BJP said that first Congress tried to wage proxy wars and when the party failed, it began with these media stunts. “BJP is not to be blamed for those who are going in and out of the party. We have asked for an inquiry into the matter,” Pandya said.
Following these turn of events and Narendra revealing the bribe offered by BJP, Nikhil Sawani, who had joined BJP just 15 days back, gave his resignation to return back with Hardik Patel. In his statement to the press he said that he was not offered any money by BJP to join the party, he had only joined keeping in mind the betterment of the Patidars and hoping that BJP will keep up its promises. When he realised that BJP is not doing anything in favour of his community, he resigned from BJP and also thanked Narendra Patel, to reveal the truth about BJP.
Nikhil said that he might have had some differences with Hardik Patel, but both of their stands was for the same cause and that is reserved for the Patidars. He also added that he is not with any party, he will only support the party who will grant the demands of the Patidars.
These changing political equations in Gujarat can be a major matter of concern for the BJP as the OBC leader has already extended its support to Congress and if the Patidars also join the party, the battle is almost won by Congress this time.