COURTESY HT JULY 12

Hardik Patel to head Cong’s Gujarat unit

Hardik Patel
Sunetra Choudhury

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : The Congress party has appointed Patidar leader, Hardik Patel, 26, as the working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, perhaps the first time the 135-year-old party has appointed a person so young to such a key position.

The move is aimed at injecting some fresh blood into the Gujarat Congress that has been out of power for three decades.

Patel hit the headlines in 2015 when he became the face of upper caste dissatisfaction against the BJP government in the state, seeking reservation in educational institutions and jobs for a once-dominant agrarian community. With no political background, Patel was able to mobilise crowds that challenged then CM Anandiben Patel’s rule. The violence and protests that ensued led to sedition charges against him but also established him as a man whose Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) was an entity that major parties had to reckon with. “30 years we have been in exile (in the state). I want to travel to 12,000 villages in Gujarat to tell people to forget the mistakes that Congress made, to just give us one more chance,” Patel said over phone soon after his appointment.