Cong, Patidar leaders, reach agreement

CONG COMES OUT WITH 1ST LIST OF 77 CANDIDATES

AHMEDABAD: The Congress on Sunday released the first list of its 77 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly election with senior leaders from the state Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia getting tickets for the crucial election.

In a related development, the Gujarat Congress and the Hardik Patel led-patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on Sunday said that they had reached an agreement over the issue of granting reservation to Patels if the Congress is voted to power in the state Assembly election.

The official announcement about the nittygritty of the reservation formula and the PAAS’ stand on supporting the Congress during the Gujarat polls will be announced by Hardik Patel at a public gathering in Rajkot on Monday, PAAS convener Dinesh Bambhania said after the crucial meeting on the issue. Hardik Patel was not present at the meeting. “Earlier, we had asked the Congress to clarify how they would grant Patidars a constitutionally valid reservation. On Sunday we held a crucial meeting on that issue and finally reached a consensus on various options offered by the party to us. The official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik on Monday in Rajkot,” said Bambhania, a key aide of Hardik Patel.

“I can say that we are in agreement with the Congress about their formula of granting reservation. We have not talked anything about giving tickets to PAAS. Hardik would announce on Monday whether PAAS would support the Congress during the polls or not,” he told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting with PAAS leaders was attended by Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and senior Congress leaders Siddharth Patel and Babubhai Mangukia.

Solanki claimed the meeting yielded a “positive outcome”.