Gujarat’s Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Saturday issued ultimatum to Congress party to clear its stand on the Patidar community’s demand for quota by November 3 or else face the consequences.
“Congress must clarify how it proposes to give reservations constitutionally by November 3, 2017. If it does not make its stand clear, an episode similar to Amit Shah could repeat in Surat," Mr Patel tweeted. November 3 is when Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will be in Gujarat to campaign for the party.
Mr Patel maintained that if the Congress supports their demand and grant the quota in constitutionally acceptable way, then he and the Patidar community will support the party in the Assembly polls.
By referring to the Amit Shah episode, the 24-year-old leader spearheading the quota agitation, meant that Mr Shah was forced to curtail his speech within minutes in Patidar-dominated Surat in September 2016 when the community members disrupted the event and tossed the chairs, forcing the organisers to wind up the event in 30 minutes.
Dinesh Bambhaniya, a PAAS convener, said the organisation and the community it represented would take a call on whether to support the Congress in the Assembly polls only after the opposition party made its stand clear on the issue.
“First, let the Congress party makes its stand clear on the issue and then will reveal our strategy,” Mr Bambhania said.
It may be noted that the Congress has maintained that once voted to power in Gujarat, its government would bring a Bill in the Assembly granting 20 % quota benefits to economically backwards among the upper castes from the general category quota.
The Gujarat Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in two phases — on December 9 and December 14.
