I’ll work as Narendra Modi’s soldier, tweets Hardik Patel forward of becoming a member of BJP 

By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Once a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Congress chief Hardik Patel, who is ready to hitch the ruling BJP in Gujarat on Thursday, posted a tweet within the morning saying he would work as a “soldier” of PM Modi and begin a “new chapter”.

Patel is ready to hitch the BJP at 12 pm on Thursday.

“Today, I am going to start a new chapter keeping in mind the interest of the nation, region, society and community. I will work as a small soldier in the development work of the nation being carried out under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he stated within the tweet.

Elections to the 182-member House of the Gujarat Assembly are due by the tip of this yr.

Patel had earlier led an aggressive agitation to demand quota for the Patidar neighborhood and focused the BJP authorities repeatedly.

He was a really vocal critic of the BJP prior to now.

But the BJP authorities had slapped a number of instances towards him, together with that of sedition.

Patel, who had joined the Congress in 2019, resigned from the celebration not too long ago.

After that, there was a hypothesis that he would possibly be a part of the ruling BJP.

He had even praised the BJP’s decision-making capability and magnificence of functioning, whereas severely criticising the Congress management.

Before quitting the Congress, Patel had written a scathing letter to celebration chief Sonia Gandhi, claiming that the Congress “only played the role of a roadblock” over sure key points within the nation and was “merely reduced to opposing everything”.

Patel first got here into limelight in 2015 when he spearheaded the motion demanding reservation for the Patidar neighborhood in authorities jobs and academic institutes.

Although he joined the opposition Congress in March 2019 forward of the Lok Sabha election, contesting the parliamentary election was not doable for him as a consequence of his conviction in a rioting case.

He positioned himself as a vocal critic of the BJP and saved concentrating on the celebration and its governments within the state and on the Centre for being “anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-youth”.

Since he was convicted in rioting and arson instances, it affected his possibilities of contesting an election.

However, the Supreme Court not too long ago stayed his conviction.

Patel, who was charged underneath Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage conflict towards authorities) and 120 (B) (felony conspiracy), has been out on bail since 2016.

The BJP authorities has not too long ago taken steps to withdraw a number of instances lodged towards Patel and others associated to the 2015 reservation agitation and the violence that broke out during which 10 individuals, together with a policeman, had been killed and public properties and automobiles broken.