Joining BJP an option, AAP has better strategy than Congress: Hardik Patel

Days after resigning from the Congress in Gujarat, Patidar leader Hardik Patel told sources on Tuesday that he would play an "important role" in the Assembly elections later this year which, he said, would be "one-sided" in favour of the BJP.

Indicating that he was keeping all options open, Hardik also praised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for having a "better" electoral strategy than the Congress. While claiming he was not "clear if he would join" AAP, he said that "in the upcoming elections, I don't see the Congress anywhere".

According to him, the Gujarat elections will "not be interesting as it will be one-sided" but he would "play a better role" than in 2017.

Hardik was inducted into the Congress in 2019 and appointed working president of the state unit in 2020.

On May 18, he posted his resignation letter on Twitter, saying the party's top leaders seemed more interested in "messages they had received on their mobile (phones)" and behaved as if "they hate Gujarat and Gujaratis" while state leaders were "more focussed" in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.

In the letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Hardik also took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi without naming him: "Whenever our country faced challenges and when the Congress needed leadership, Congress leaders were enjoying abroad."

According to Hardik, the "anger" that was seen in the elections of 2015 and 2017 was "gone" by the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the Congress failed to win a seat.

Ahead of the last assembly elections in 2017, Hardik had campaigned against the BJP across the state, with the backing of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), the front he had launched for the quota agitation.