Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 28: The churning is on in the Congress and with the election strategist Prashant Kishor out of the party, the sulking working president of the Gujarat Congress Hardik Patel is virtually back in the party.
The Young Turk “Patidar” (Patel) leader had recently picked up issues with the state Congress and was visibly going close to the BJP, the party he had been severely criticising over the past few years for “crushing” the reservation agitation by the Patels.
Hardik, who was personally taken into the party by Rahul Gandhi just before the 2017 state Assembly elections and recently made the working president of the state party, had become restive and accused the Congress state leadership of “ignoring and insulting him.” The reason for his sudden dislike for the Congress was learnt to be Prashant Kishor’s insistence to bring in a respected “Patidar leader” Naresh Patel into the party which would have meant Hardik losing his place as the powerful “Patidar face” in the Congress.
Besides being a rich industrialist, Naresh Patel is also the founder chairman of the “Khodaldham Trust,” one of the largest religious centres of the Patels near Rajkot and having millions of followers among the Patidars.
Both the Congress and the BJP had been trying to woo Naresh Patel but so far he has steered clear of party politics though personally had shown more leaning towards the Congress than the BJP. Prashant Kishor was learnt to be rooting for inducting Naresh Patel into the party and perhaps also project him as the chief ministerial candidate in the state Assembly elections due by the end of the current year. This apparently was disliked by Hardik though publicly he did not oppose Naresh Patel’s entry into the party.
With Prashant Kishor out of the reckoning, though the Congress has promised to execute some of his suggestions for the revival of the party, the chances of Naresh Patel joining the Congress may have also disappeared and if he finally decided to jump into the political arena, he might do so through the BJP.
This was one of the reasons the political observers believed why all the senior BJP leaders stayed away from a religious gathering Hardik Patel had organised on Thursday at his ancestral residence in Viramgam, near Ahmedabad, on the occasion of the first death anniversary of his father who died of post-Covid complications last year.
In contrast, all the top Congress leaders turned up at the event and Hardik was overwhelmed admitting that his “grievances” against the party leadership were “substantially resolved” on Thursday and reiterated his “goal to see a Congress government in office after the 2022 elections.”
The Congress went out of its way to project a picture of bonhomie with Hardik Patel turning up in strength and asserting that he had a crucial role in the party. With Hardik’s list of BJP invitees largely staying away, the Patidar leader returned the favour by saying it could be said the issues he had with the Congress had been substantially resolved.
“Our aim is to form a Congress government in 2022 (the coming Assembly elections), and Hardik Patel will have a key role in it,” the Congress Gujarat in-charge Raghu Sharma said. Asked about Hardik’s statements expressing unhappiness within the party, he added: “Hardik is the future and an inseparable part, strong pillar of the Congress. He will continue to work for the party, his future is bright.” Besides Sharma, among other top Congress leaders who turned up for the religious event included the state president Jagdish Thakor, Leader of Opposition Sukhram Rathva, local Congress MLA Lakhabhai Bharwad, former Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani, Dasada MLA Naushad Solanki and former state president Siddharth Patel. Though he had invited the top BJP leaders also and the chief minister Bhupendra Patel and the state BJP president C R Paatil were expected, none of the senior BJP leaders turned up and the only ruling party representative in the gathering was Tejashree Patel, a former MLA who was elected on the Congress ticket but had later crossed over to the BJP.
Hardik has been saying that he felt “sidelined” in the Congress though adding that he blames the state unit for it rather than the high command.
Hardik expressing happiness that top leaders of the Congress “all came”, he said: “I could have differences with them, but that’s a separate matter. It cannot be in a religious gathering. I have said it earlier too that I will resolve whatever personal issues I may have with the party. My objective is the welfare of 6.5 crore people of Gujarat.”
On Sharma calling him an inseparable part of the Congress, who will work to strengthen it, Hardik said, “That is what I have been demanding. I have never demanded anything, but work. If party gives me that, then I will work.” Asked if his problems with the party had been solved, Hardik said: “We will do it, if not done already. And you may think that it has been resolved today… Today they have made a move and come. So, we will resolve it by talking to each other.”
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, the former chief minister Kamal Nath on Thursday resigned as the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly in keeping with the party’s “one man one post” theory. Kamal Nath will continue as the MP Congress president. The Congress accepted his resignation and said Dr Govind Singh will take over as the Congress Legislature Party leader of Madhya Pradesh after Nath’s resignation.
Nath served as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for about 15 months after winning the state Assembly elections in 2018. However, the Congress government fell in March 2020 after a political turmoil in the state following a slew of resignations by sitting MLAs. Nath then assumed the post of Congress Legislature Party leader in July 2020.
The grand old party has recently changed its leadership in quite a few states including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab — a state where the party lost power to Aam Aadmi Party in the recently concluded Assembly elections.