BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya supports Patel quota stir

GANDHINAGAR: While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to set its house in order before going to polls for the local bodies across Gujarat, Saurastra, the heartland of Patidars, is fuming.

What’s worrying the party is that some of its leaders have been openly voicing their support for Hardik Patel, a development that has embarrassed even Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, a Patidar herself.

Nalin Kotadiya, a BJP MLA from Dhari, who had earlier joined Congress while protesting against the inclusion of 121 villages in the eco-sensitive zone around Gir forest, has openly expressed his wish to join Hardik Patel. Kotadiya criticized the police excesses of August 25 night, which had catapulted Patel into the national spotlight.

Kotadiya said he is ready to resign from the BJP to take up the cause of his community and even supported Patel’s call to attack policemen, arguing that there’s no sin in killing a sinner.

He was elected as an MLA from the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) floated by the late Keshubhai Patel ahead of the 2012 Gujarat election and joined BJP after Keshubhai merged the party with BJP.

"Even if I am in BJP, I speak as a member of the Patidar community. The process of reservation is a long drawn one, but the way our boys have been beaten up is unprecedented. If the government does not take action against the police, the Patel community will not be safe under this regime and hence I have called for boycotting the BJP,” Kotadiya told ET.

However, Naran Kachadiya, a member of the Lok Sabha from Amreli, dismissed Kotadiya’s claims. "BJP never gave him a ticket even for the municipal election and he is now piggybacking on the Patel movement to stay relevant,” he claimed.