Hardik Patel to join Congress: From Patidar stir crusader to novice politician, a look back at his journey

Hardik Patel's first tryst with fame came when he launched the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti and spearheaded the massive Patidar rally demanding quota for the politically influential community under OBC category in August 2015.

Hardik Patel (Express photo by Dilip Kagda/File)

Putting all speculations to rest, Patidar reservation stir leader Hardik Patel Thursday confirmed that he will take plunge into electoral politics by joining the Congress in the “next couple of days”.

A fluent orator and a tireless campaigner, the 25-year-old began demonstrating his political sharpness during his college days and joined the Sardar Patel Group, a popular Patidar community organisation, where he was entrusted with the task of handling its social media.

His first tryst with fame came when he launched the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti and spearheaded the massive Patidar rally demanding reservation for the politically influential community under OBC category in August 2015.

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The protest rally saw sporadic clashes erupting across various parts of the city as police baton-charged and lobbed teargas shells to quell the situation. The agitation also led to the death of 10 people.

Hailing from the Kadva Patel community, Hardik continued to galvanise the movement and was then charged with sedition. He was arrested in October 2015 on the charge of allegedly insulting the national flag, which led to a growing discontent against the BJP. It was palpable when the BJP faced major reverses in Gujarat taluka and district panchayat elections as a fallout of the agitation by the Patidar community, considered the backbone of BJP’s vote bank. He subsequently walked out of prison on July 15, 2016, after spending nine months behind bars.

For a leader who burst on the scene three years ago and has half-a-dozen cases against him, including two of sedition, Hardik’s ability to emerge as a potent third force in a state that is used to a bipolar electoral contest–without even being eligible to contest–is quite remarkable.

From positioning the prosperous Patidars as a community that got left out of the Gujarat “development plan”, Hardik has been assailing the BJP on many issues. In the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, though the BJP scraped through to form the government, it was not without a loud rap on its knuckle that the Hardik-led Patidar agitation threatened victories of some of its top Patidar leaders.

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The worst showing was in the region of Saurashtra and Kutch where, of the 54 seats, BJP won only 23. In 2012, of the six seats in Kutch, five were held by BJP and one by the Congress; of the 48 in Saurashtra, BJP had 30. This has now changed to 19 for the BJP and 28 for the Congress. This reversal assumes significance as it indicates that the Kathiawadi Patels had backed the Congress.

Prior to the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, Hardik found himself mired in controversy after an alleged sex video surfaced in which the man shown was purported to be Hardik. He accused the BJP of resorting to “dirty politics” and dubbed the video a “morphed footage”.

While his counterparts Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani fought and won elections as Congress candidate and Congress-backed candidate respectively, Hardik failed to contest elections as he was not 25 years old, the minimum qualifying age to contest the election. Having turned 25 in July last year, Hardik is now seen as a formidable candidate for the 2019 elections.

In January this year, Hardik married his old friend Kinjal Parikh-Patel at a simple ceremony at a temple in Digsar village of Surendranagar district in presence of close relatives and friends.