Hours after Hardik Patel quit Congress Wednesday After accusing party leaders of indifference, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor hit back, claiming the Patidar leader had planned to harm the party by making statements against it and that his resignation letter was drafted at the BJP headquarters in the state.
“He had planned to harm the party by making statements against the party in TV media. But due to my statement in Udaipur, he realized that he would get a notice or that he would have to give clarification. To prevent that, he had to make an early decision after my last statement in Udaipur,” Thakor said. “While there is a debate going on since the morning as to why he had to take the decision, the language of his (resignation) letter is that of restraint. However, that letter was drafted in Kamalam. He has alluded to Section 370, Ram Janmabhoomi, issues which are five years old etc,” he added.
Thakor was interacting with journalists at Rajkot Circuit House on Wednesday. The GPCC president arrived in the city for the party’s Saurashtra zonal meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday.
In his resignation letter posted on his Twitter account, Hardik Patel, the working president of GPCC, stated, “Over the last three years, I have found that the Congress party and its leadership both and central and state level have been merely reduced to opposing everything, whereas the people always seek an alternative that thinks of their future and is capable of taking India ahead”. He also accused Congress leadership of “lack of seriousness.”
Hardik Patel had been making statements in the media that he was not happy with Congress, claiming the party was neither giving him work nor allowing him to express himself at party fora. But Thakor countered the Patidar leader. “I used to request him to stop making statements to the media while assuring him that I was ready to meet him at the place of his choice and talk over the issues he liked,” said Thakor. “Raghu Sharma and the rest of our top leadership were also ready to have a dialogue with him. But he never turned for such discussion.”
Thakor also said that Hardik Patel was invited to the party’s Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan’s Udaipur. “But when I called him twice, he cut my phone. When the Udaipur Shivir got over, through the media, I had asked Hardik to make statements to the media as it was harming the party and instead discuss your issues at party fora… I had further said that if he didn’t listen, the party would take appropriate action.”
Incidentally, Hardik had skipped the Congress Chintan Shivir and instead held a meeting with Shree Khodaldham Trust chairman Naresh Patel and attended other events in the Surendranagar and Sabarkantha districts.
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