Former Congress leader Hardik Patel joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. His switch to BJP came when only a few months are left for the Gujarat Assembly elections. On Thursday morning, Hardik Patel tweeted that he will be starting a new chapter in his life, working as a small soldier under the leadership of PM Modi. "When people are connecting with the ongoing development works in the country under the leadership of PM Modi, then I should also do the same," said Patel to news agency ANI. Hardik Patel, rose to fame after leading the Patidar reservation agitation for the purpose of inclusion of Patidar caste in Other Backward Class(OBC) category to avail the benefits of reservation. He joined the Indian National Congress in 2019 and he has left the party in 2022. Here we bring you some lesser known facts about the Patidar leader.
Hardik Patel was born on 20 July 1983 in Gujarat, to Bharat and Usha Patel. Hardik did his schooling from Divya Jyot School in Viramgam and from K B Shah Vinay Mandir.
In 2010, Patel joined Sahajanand College in Ahmedabad. In his college days, he contested for the post of general secretary of the college student's union and won the election unopposed.
In 2012, he also joined Patidar youth body ‘Sardar Patel Group (SPG)’ and within a time period of 1 month, he became Viramgam Unit’s president.
Later in his political journey, Hardik Patel started Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS) aiming to get the Patidars included in the Other Backward class.
The Patidar leader started a rally in Visnagar in 2015 for Patidar reservation agitation. He published about the rally on social media to gather supporters. He succeeded in gathering a large number of people from the community at GMDC ground, Ahmedabad and declared the day as ‘Patidar Kranti Divas.
In 2015, he also started Patel Navnirman Sena (PNS) with an aim to bring all Patidars, Gujjars, and Kurmis under one roof to fight for their demands.
On 27th January 2019, Patel married Kinjal Parikh in Digsar village, Surendranagar. Hardik and Kinjal knew each other from their childhood and were good friends before marriage.
In the year 2019, he joined the INC and on 11 July 2020 he was appointed the Working President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. Later the leader accused the leadership of INC of sidelining him while making important decisions and eventually quit the party on 18 May 2022.
The Patidar leader, Hardik Patel who was once a staunch critic of the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, on Thursday joined the BJP at the party's office in Gandhinagar. While addressing the media he also said that an event will be held every 10 days to persuade disgruntled Congress leaders to join BJP.
