Eyeing the Assembly polls in Gujarat next year, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday extended support to the Patidar agitation in Gujarat. NCP leader Praful Patel, Maharashtra-based originally Gujarati leader, met the representatives of the agitation and extended his party's support for their demand for OBC status and quotas for the community.
"We met Praful Patel, who assured us his party's support and also said that he would raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha," Varun Patel, spokesperson of Patidar Anamat Andoolan Samiti (PAAS) said after the meeting.
The NCP's move to support the numerically and socially powerful community came after the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal slammed the Gujarat government for jailing Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel in sedition case. Subsequently, posters and banners thanking the Delhi Chief Minister for speaking for Hardik Patel came up in Patidar dominated pockets in Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot.
"In NCP, we believe in talking all communities and classes along. On the Patidar community's demand, we are committed to give them due recognition and respect their feelings," the former union minister told the media after the meeting. It may be noted that NCP has two MLAs in the state assembly in Gujarat.
Mr. Patel also hit out at the state BJP government for its "insensitivity" in handling the Patidar agitation that had turned violent in which more than a dozen persons were killed in police firing while one police constable was also killed in rioting.
Earlier, the Congress leader in the Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela also supported the Patidar community's demand and said that the government must provide 20 per cent quota to the upper castes based on economic criteria.
The Gujarat government has announced 10 per cent quota for the upper castes in the government jobs and education based on economic criteria fixed at Rs six lakh annual income for the family. On May 1, an ordinance was promulgated by the state administration with immediate effect.
The ordinance has been challenged in the High Court, which has seen three different petitions challenging the ordinance.
