Former Congress Leader Hardik Patel Joins BJP, Months Before Gujarat Election.

Hardik Patel, who recently quit the Congress, joined the BJP today, in Ghandinagar Gujarat.

The 28-year-old was welcomed with a saffron scarf and cap at the BJP office in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar.

Patel’s entry comes as a shot in the arm for the saffron party just months ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

This morning, the Patidar leader had tweeted about “starting a new chapter” and working as a “small soldier” under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I am about to start a new chapter with feelings of national interest, regional interest and social interest. I will work as a small soldier in the massive work in national service under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he had written in Hindi.

Hardik Patel quit the Congress on May 18, writing a scathing letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi in which he launched an all-out attack on the party’s Gujarat unit and the senior leadership.

In his resignation letter, Patel wrote that the Congress “only played to the role of a roadblock” over certain key issues in the country and was “merely reduced to opposing everything”.

Hhe targeted the man who brought him into the Congress – Rahul Gandhi. “Top leaders”, he wrote in the letter, were distracted by their mobile phones and Gujarat Congress leaders were more interested in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.

After publicly criticising the functioning of the Gujarat Congress in April, Patel had suggested that his options were “open”. He had also lavishly praised the ruling BJP for its “terrific decision-taking” leadership.

However, back then, he had denied any plans to quit the Congress. 

Patel first came into limelight in 2015 when he spearheaded the movement demanding reservation for the Patidar community in government jobs and educational institutes.

Although he joined the opposition Congress in March 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha election, contesting the parliamentary election was not possible for him due to his conviction in a rioting case.

He positioned himself as a vocal critic of the BJP and kept targeting the party and its governments in the state and at the Centre for being “anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-youth”. Since he was convicted in rioting and arson cases, it affected his chances of contesting an election. However, the Supreme Court recently stayed his conviction. 

Patel, who was charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), has been out on bail since 2016. 

The BJP government has recently taken steps to withdraw several cases lodged against Patel and others related to the 2015 reservation agitation and the violence