A day after issuing an ultimatum to the Congress party to decide its stand on the quota issue, the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on Sunday announced that the Congress had accepted its demand for “quota in jobs and education to the Patidar community”. The PAAS said a formal announcement would be made by Mr. Patel on Monday.
The announcement came after a long meeting with Congress leaders in Gujarat to sort out differences, and also possibly decide on the seats for whichPAAS leaders will contest the Assembly polls on the Congress ticket.
“We have reached the agreement; more details on Monday,” Mr. Patel said in Dhrol, where he was addressing a rally of the Patidar community.
In Ahmedabad, convener of PAAS Dinesh Bambhania, a close aide of Mr. Patel’s, told mediapersons that all their demands for a quota and related issues would be met. “Hardik himself will share the details tomorrow, when he will also address a rally in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s constituency in Rajkot,” Mr. Bambhania added.
Gujarat Congress president Bharat Solanki told presspersons, “Our meeting with PAAS leaders was positive and they have agreed on their demands.”
Neither Congress leaders nor PAAS members have divulged the details of the quota formula the Congress offered to the Patidars, who are part of the upper castes in Gujarat and thus not entitled to reservation.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt from Congress and PAAS insiders that a few samiti members are likely to get the Congress ticket to contest the Assembly polls in the Patidar-dominated seats, mainly in Saurashtra.
On Saturday, PAAS had issued an ultimatum to the Congress to clear its stand on the quota demand and other issues after their meeting in Delhi could not materialise as Congress leaders were busy with the party high command to discuss the names of probable candidates.
The differences with PAAS and other allies is the main reason for the delay in the announcement of Congress’ candidates as the party approaches the deadline for the filing of nomination papers for first phase of polls on November 21.
“Our list will be declared on Monday evening,” Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.
While the PAAS, which is driving a hard bargain with the grand old party given its hold on the numerically strong community, has demanded nearly 20 seats from the Congress quota, the Other Backward Classes (OBC) group, led by Alpesh Thakor, has demanded 12. Mr. Thakor joined the Congress recently.
Congress hopeful
A Congress leader, who is in the know of the negotiations, said the issue of allocation of seats would be resolved soon.
Earlier, the Congress party had roped in legal luminary and top leader Kapil Sibal to prepare a formula under which an upper caste like Patidar can be extended quota benefits without touching the existing quotas given to the Scheduled Tribes (ST), Scheduled Castes (SC) and OBCs under the Constitution.
(With PTI inputs)
