Hardik Patel resigns from Congress membership ahead of Gujarat polls

Hardik Patel has quit the Congress, months before the Gujarat assembly election. Announcing his decision on Twitter with a resignation letter addressed to party president Sonia Gandhi, Patel said he was “gathering the courage to resign from the Congress party and post”.

“I am sure my decision will be welcomed by my colleagues and the people of Gujarat. I believe that with this step, I will be able to work really positively for Gujarat in future," he said.

The Patidar activist, who joined the Congress in 2019 just before the Lok Sabha election, had lately been publicly airing his grievances with the party and the top brass over being sidelined ahead of polls. He had recently compared his situation to that of a “groom forced into nasbandi (vasectomy)".

The 28-year-old leader is considered face of the Patidar community which has been a staunch supporter of the BJP. He met  Patidar community’s influential leader Naresh Patel in Gujarat's Saurashtra on May 15 and requested him to take a call regarding joining politics at the earliest.

Buzz is that the youth leader is planning to join the BJP.

In the last polls held in 2017, Hardik, is said to have played a key role for the Congress in the assembly polls, helping the party win 77 seats and restrict the BJP to 99 in the 182-member house.