Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections later this year, Patel resigned from the Congress on Wednesday, claiming that the party’s top leaders were confused by their mobile phones and that the Gujarat Congress leaders were more interested in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.
Asked whether he would join the BJP or the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, Patel said on Thursday, “I have not yet decided whether to join any political party, be it the BJP or the AAP.”
Hitting the Congress, he said the party never says anything about Hindus, such as the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) or the ‘Shivling’ (so-called) issue found in a mosque in Varanasi.
“Moreover, the Gujarat Congress is too much in caste-based politics. I have wasted my three years in this party,” Patel said.
He claimed that the Congress had no vision and that party leaders like “Adani and Ambani” were biased against the Gujarati people.
In his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, he accused the party’s top leadership of behaving as if they hated Gujarat and Gujaratis, and said he was resigning as acting president of the state Congress and primary party member.
Patel gained prominence in 2015 after leading a movement demanding conservation for the Patidar community in the state.
In July 2020, he was made the Acting President of the Gujarat Congress.