Former Congress leader Hardik Patel joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday. The Gujarat Patidar leader's move comes ahead of the state Assembly elections due later this year.
Hardik Patel who recently quit Congress joins BJP in Gandhinagar, Gujarat pic.twitter.com/JT6UtIPPJg
— ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2022
Ahead of joining the saffron party, Patel tweeted, "I will start a new chapter today with the feelings of national interest, state interest, public interest and social interest. I will work as a small soldier in the noble work of service to the nation under the leadership of the successful Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Bhai Modi."
राष्ट्रहित, प्रदेशहित, जनहित एवं समाज हित की भावनाओं के साथ आज से नए अध्याय का प्रारंभ करने जा रहा हूँ। भारत के यशस्वी प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेन्द्र भाई मोदी जी के नेतृत्व में चल रहे राष्ट्र सेवा के भगीरथ कार्य में छोटा सा सिपाही बनकर काम करूँगा।
— Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) June 2, 2022
The BJP has been in power in the state for over two decades.
Patel, 28, had in 2015 led a violent agitation seeking quota for his Patidar community and was a strong critic of the BJP in the past. The then BJP government in Gujarat had booked the firebrand leader in several cases, including on the charge of sedition.
Patel joined the Congress in 2019 and was later made the state unit's working president. He quit the party in May.
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