A day after supporting the demand of Patel community for reservation, Gujarat BJP MP and a leading Patel community leader Vithal Radadia on Tuesday met incarcerated Hardik Patel in Surat jail to discuss the “compromise formula.” The 22 year old Hardik, who had sprearheaded a mass agitation demanding reservation benefits, has been in jail since last September facing two sedition cases slapped on him and his aides by the Gujarat police.
“I met Hardik on Chief Minister's behalf to discuss the issue of reservation and how it can be resolved. We had a detailed and frank discussion on all the issues related to the quota and demands raised by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS),” Mr Radadia told media persons after an hour long meeting in Surat jail.
Mr Radadia indicated that the government is contemplating to withdraw sedition cases against Hardik and his aides if the quota issue is mutually resolved. Earlier, the government had withdrawn more than 70 cases involving over 300 Patels, who were arrested during the agitation in last August.
Besides Hardik, the BJP parliamentarian also held a long meeting with representatives of the Patel community and the PAAS in Surat to thrash out differences between them and the state government, which has been making efforts lately to reach out to the agitating community.
Meanwhile, a BJP legislator from Surat Kumar Kanani also joined the chorus of BJP leaders supporting the community's demand for quotas in jobs and education.
Mr Kanani has written a letter to the Chief Minister Anandiben Patel urging her to consider granting quota benefits to the Patidars on the lines of Haryana government's decision to offer quotas to the Jat community following Jat agitation in which 19 persons were killed while the state suffered loss of over 25000 in damage to public properties vandalized by the angry mobs.
