Disgruntled Gujarat Cong leader Hardik Patel quits party

AHMEDABAD: Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Wednesday resigned from the Congress, claiming that top leaders of the party were distracted by their mobile phones and Gujarat Congress leaders were more interested in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.

In his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi ahead of this year’s Gujarat Assembly poll, Patel (28) accused the party’s top leadership of behaving as if they hated Gujarat and Gujaratis, and said he was quitting as the state Congress working president and from the party’s primary membership.

Patel wrote of his disappointment when party workers like him travelled 500-600 km a day to attend a party meeting and discuss issues but found the leaders busy trying to ensure that some senior Congress leader from Delhi was served his chicken sandwich on time.

“Whenever I tried to draw the attention of party leaders towards pressing issues of Gujarat, it seemed they were more focused on their mobile phone screens and other things,” Patel said, describing lack of seriousness about all issues as a major problem with the Congress’ senior leadership.

Some leaders were enjoying abroad when the party and the country needed them, he said.

Patel is the latest Congress leader to leave the party. Those who quit the party recently include former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, Amarinder Singh, Ashwani Kumar and RPN Singh, all long-time leaders of the party.

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

Patel claimed that despite several attempts to steer the Congress in the right direction, the party has constantly been working “against the interests of my country and our society”.

“Hence, I wish to draw your attention to certain very important issues... Over the last three years, I have found that the Congress and its leadership, both at the central and state levels, have been merely reduced to opposing everything.

“Be it the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, the implementation of GST, India wanted a solution to these issues for a long time and the Congress only played the role of a roadblock,” he said in the letter.

When it came to issues related to India, Gujarat and the Patidar community, the Congress' only stand was to oppose whatever the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi did, he said, amid speculation in state political circles that he may join BJP ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections.

“The Congress today has been rejected in almost every state of India, because the party and its leadership have not been able to present a basic road map to the people, Patel said.

“The lack of seriousness about all issues is a major problem with the party's senior leadership. Whenever I met senior leaders, I always felt that they were not really interested in hearing about problems concerning the people of Gujarat,” he said.