Serious cracks have begun to emerge within the Patidar agitation in Gujarat with Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) convener Hardik Patel’s close aides, now accusing the ‘quota spearhead’ of “spending the community’s money on furthering his personal interests” and that “he has been favouring and listening to his distant relative, rather than to his PAAS colleagues.”
These allegations were levelled by Hardik’s close aides Chirag Patel and Ketan Patel who were co-accused in the sedition case, and had spent time in jail.
The two leaders wrote in a letter to Hardik, who is externed in Udaipur, “The Patidar community had dreamt of OBC status a year ago. But, you have dashed those hopes completely. The community had come out in open to support PAAS’s call, but now it feels that it had to face adversities because of your personal interests, selfishness and your desire to be rich by misusing the community.”
The letter goes on to say, “The way you (Hardik) have been trying to gain the community’s sympathy by boasting about your nine-month jail term should be questioned. You should not forget, it was not you alone, but we too have spent jail terms as co-accused in the sedition case,” claims the letter.
They further alleged, “You and your Vipul Kaka (distant relative) have been enjoying a lavish lifestyle in a bungalow and spending your community’s donations on being ferried in a luxurious car. This money was meant for the martyrs of our community, who had laid down their lives during the OBC quota agitation in August last year.” Hardik, countered the two PAAS leaders and told TOI, “PAAS is just a name. The agitation is of the community, and no one can claim its ownership. Chirag and Ketan are raising doubts on my political motives, but they were the same people who met JDU leaders in the past.”
Sourced from TNN, Featured image courtesy: www.newspoint.in
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