New Delhi: Former Congress leader Hardik Patel will join the BJP on June 2 in the presence of Gujarat party president C R Paatil, a state party spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday. "It is confirmed that Hardik Patel will join the BJP on June 2 in the presence of state president C R Paatil," BJP's state spokesperson Yagnesh Dave said on Tuesday.
The former Congress leader withdrew his loyalties from the party on May 18 amid shaky political dynamics ahead of the upcoming polls. Speculations over Hardik Patel joining the BJP were rife since his resignation from Congress. He had praised the BJP's decision-making capacity and style of functioning, while severely criticising the Congress leadership.
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Taking frequent jabs at Congress, Patel had called the party anti-Patidar and anti-Gujarat, thereby undermining his politically passionate efforts towards the Patidar community that had caught major limelight in 2015 during the Patidar reservation agitation movement led by him. Patel has lately been particularly targeting Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma and former GPCC president Bharatsinh Solanki. He said these leaders are not respecting people's sentiments.
Before quitting the Congress earlier this month, Patel had also written a scathing letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, claiming the Congress "only played the role of a roadblock" over certain key issues in the country and was "merely reduced to opposing everything".
