NEW DELHI: The Congress went into a huddle on Saturday after Hardik Patel set a deadline for the party to clarify its stand on the Patel quota issue. Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi called a meeting of senior leaders, including party president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, who belongs to Gujarat, and AICC general secretary in- charge of the state, Ashok Gehlot, at his residence to discuss Hardik’s ultimatum.
“If the party does not clear its stand on the quota issue by November 3, it may meet the same fate as BJP chief Amit Shah did during his Surat rally,” Hardik earlier tweeted. He was referring to Shah’s meeting in Surat last month where Hardik’s supporters had created a ruckus as the ruling BJP remained non-committal on their demand for reservation in jobs and higher education for Patidars.
Knowing that a separate quota for the Patel community could take the reservation percentage beyond the upper limit of 50 per cent set by the Supreme Court, Hardik wanted the Congress to clarify if it would take steps to make the reservation constitutionally valid.
The timing of the ultimatum, coming days ahead of Rahul’s Gujarat visit from November 1 to 3, is significant as the Congress strategists have been trying hard to enlist Hardik’s support ahead of the Assembly polls in December.
Gehlot, however, downplayed the issue saying the state Congress leaders were talking to the Patidar leader to find a solution to the vexed issue. “Our state leader Siddharth Patel, who heads the poll manifesto committee, is looking into the issue. He is in touch with Hardik,” he told The Sunday Standard.