Patel agitation leader Hardik Patel passed BCom exam with grace marks

AHMEDABAD: Twenty two-year-old Hardik Patel has Patidar youth eating out of his hands as he mobilizes them to fight for reservation citing how despite getting brilliant grades they find themselves at a disadvantage in education due to OBC reservation.

In fact, in the early days of the agitation, a message on how a Patel boy despite getting 90 per cent did not get admission in medicine while OBC-quota students get admission with 44 per cent. Interestingly, the brain behind this positioning on shrinking education opportunities for bright students himself relied on a good eight grace marks to clear his BCom!

Hardik Patel cleared BCom with 49.6 per cent. A college teacher said that Hardik was poor in academics.

His marksheet reveals that he had scored 17 marks in commercial communication and was given eight grace marks to get the necessary 25 marks to pass.

In fact, he obtained Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) in four subjects in FY BCom when he joined Shahjanand College in 2010. Hardik got ATKT in English, Economics, Accountancy, and Statistics.

In second year, he passed with a second class, scoring 253 out of 490 marks.

The average performance in academics has not stopped Hardik from emerging as a key leader in the Patidar reservation stir that has thrown a blanket of uncertainty on Gujarat.

Dashrath Patel, director of Shahjanand College, said that Hardik was an average student who was shy and never showed any leadership skills which are being displayed in the ongoing quota agitation.