Gujarat Congress, PAAS Reach Agreement Over Reservation to Patels

Hardik Patel will be making an announcement about the PAAS’ stand on supporting the Congress in Rajkot on Monday.

The Gujarat Congress and the Hardik Patel led-Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) said on Sunday, 19 November, that they have reached an agreement over the issue of granting reservation to Patels, if the Congress is voted to power in the state Assembly election.

The official announcement about the nitty-gritty of the reservation formula and the PAAS' stand on supporting the Congress during the Gujarat polls will be made by Hardik Patel at a public gathering in Rajkot on Monday, 20 November, PAAS convener Dinesh Bambhania said after the crucial meeting on the issue.

Hardik Patel was not present at the meeting.

Earlier, we had asked the Congress to clarify how they would grant Patidars a constitutionally valid reservation. Today, we held a crucial meeting on that issue and finally reached a consensus on various options offered by the party to us. Official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik tomorrow in Rajkot. 

PAAS convener Dinesh Bambhania to PTI

"I can say that we are in agreement with the Congress about their formula of granting reservation. We have not talked anything about giving tickets to PAAS. Hardik would announce tomorrow whether PAAS would support the Congress during the polls or not," he told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting with PAAS leaders was attended by Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and senior Congress leaders Siddharth Patel and Babubhai Mangukia.

Solanki claimed the meeting yielded a "positive outcome".

"The meeting was successful and yielded a positive outcome. We both agreed to implement this agreement in the coming days," he said.

He was further quoted by ANI as saying:

PAAS has not asked for any tickets. Neither has Alpesh Thakor nor Jignesh Mevani. We have sorted out the issues on which we did not have an agreement in the earlier meeting. 

Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki

A week ago PAAS leaders and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal held a meeting over the issue, following which, Hardik Patel had said he was satisfied with the three options submitted by the Congress on how the party would grant reservation to Patels if voted to power.

Hardik Patel had earlier set a condition that he would support the Congress in the Assembly polls, due next month, only if the party committed itself to allotting reservation in education and government jobs to his community.

The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat will take place on 9 and 14 December and the votes will be counted on 18 December.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)

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