Two prominent youth leaders deserted the Congress on Wednesday — the working President of Gujarat Congress Hardik Patel and Rajasthan Youth Congress chief Ganesh Ghogra — allegedly for being ignored by the party.
The decision of Ghogra, also a Congress MLA representing the Dungarpur constituency, can upset the party’s equation in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.
While senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been promoting youth leaders, the latest decision of Patel and Ghogra can hurt the Congress which is yet to get over the electoral debacle it suffered in the state polls held earlier this year.
Earlier, prominent faces like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and R.P.N. Singh, who were ministers in the UPA government, had deserted the Congress.
Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma has alleged that Hardik Patel is fearing Naresh Patel’s entry into the Congress. Sharma said that Hardik Patel feared that if Naresh Patel joins the party, his importance will wane.
He also asserted that Hardik Patel was given a fair chance in the party and was also a star campaigner in five state elections.
Playing down Hardik Patel’s resignation, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat, Nitin Patel, said that just as joining the Congress was the Patidar leader’s personal decision, his call to quit is also his personal decision.
Gujarat is set to go to the polls by the end of this year. In his resignation letter, Hardik Patel has alleged that the Congress has no interest in Gujarat, and it cannot become an alternative to the ruling party which people are looking for.
He has further alleged that even after several efforts, the party failed to act in national interest or for the society.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Shakti Singh Gohil has called Hardik Patel an opportunist, claiming that his resignation was penned by the BJP which was only signed by him.
