NEW DELHI: Patidar leader Hardik Patel's indefinite fast got a shot in the arm on its eleventh day on Tuesday after BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha visited him and announced support to his cause.
Patel had launched his strike in Ahmedabad on August 25 demanding reservations for the Patidar community under OBC category and also the waiver of farmer loans. The Gujarat government had initially refused permission to the Patidar leader for his strike.
On Sunday, Patel made a will in which he made his parents Bharat and Usha Patel his heirs. In his will, he said he would like to give 70 per cent of the income from his yet-to-be-published book to the families of the 14 youth who died during the Patidar agitation in 2015 while the remaining would go to his parents and his sister.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government on Tuesday said that the move was politically motivated one with the Congress' support. Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said, "Patidar quota agitation is a political stir backed by the Congress. Ever since the agitation started three years back, we suspected that the Congress was behind it. Now, our suspicion has come true." He also urged Hardik to allow doctors to see him and asserted that the government was open for talks.
Apart from Singh and Sinha, a host of Congress, AAP, Trinamool, NCP and RJD leaders have met Patel and expressed their support to the agitation.