CCTV footage may damage Hardik Patel’s credibility

GANDHINAGAR: BJP has reasons to celebrate after leak of CCTV footage from a hotel showed Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel had met Congress leaders. Congress has been working on reviving its 1980s KHAM ( Kshatriya Harijan Adivasi Muslim) formula, even while wooing Patidars subtly. The community had disassociated from the Congress after it tried KHAM.

As Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi had turned KHAM into history. His absence from the state and BJP’s alleged simultaneous dalliances with Hardik and Alpesh Thakor initially had helped Congress to go back to the old formula.

After Thakor was inducted into the Congress, a spooked deputy chief minister Nitin Patel even alleged that Congress was trying to create social rift by speaking ‘only about’ Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and Muslims.

Hardik Patel’s ‘clandestine meeting’, hence, has the potential to dent his credibility to attract votes of his community. Congress could hardly be seen playing footsie with Thakor and Patidars simultaneously in the caste-sensitive Gujarat where the accusation of being a ‘Congress agent’ have been levelled by BJP and former PAAS colleagues Varun and Reshma against Hardik.