Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) has roped in Hardik Patel of Gujarat to campaign in UP Assembly elections.
Hardik Patel is the chief of Akhil Bhartiya Patel Navnirman Sena spearheading a movement in Gujarat for reservation to the Patel community. The tie up with Patel is likely to help Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to realise his aspirations of an all India leader to challenge Narendra Modi in the 2019 lok Sabha elections.
JD (U) has been desperate to expand its footprint beyond the borders of Bihar and has already forged an alliance with Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya lok Dal. The JD (U) will also share dais with the Patel Navnirman Sena in Gujarat.
A JD(U) leader said in lucknow that campaign by Hardik Patel in Assembly polls will boost the rank and file of the party and also help the party to reach out to Kurmis -the dominant OBCs community in UP.
The party is confident that with Hardik Patel and Nitish Kumar, a tall OBCs Kurmi leader of Bihar, the party can make a significant dent into the Kurmi vote bank in UP, presently with the BJP.
On its part, the BJP to strengthen its hold on the Kurmi community had forged alliance with political outfit of the community `Apna Dal’ ahead of 2014 lok Sabha polls. Anupriya Patel from the community was elected to lok Sabha from Mirzapur and presently is a Union minister of state.
Hardik Patel met the Bihar CM in Patna on Tuesday and both are said to have worked out a plan for joint campaigning in UP and Gujarat. The home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is scheduled to go to Assembly polls in first quarter of 2018.
JD(U) general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP K C Tyagi said ``We are supporting Hardik’s movement for reservation for the Patel community in Gujarat and Hardik’s campaign in UP elections and against PM Narendra Modi will impact Gujarat in the 2019 lok Sabha polls.’.
He said both leaders –Nitish Kumar and Hardik Patel, will campaign in UP during the Assembly elections and both are working on larger consolidation of various OBCs caste groups across India like Kurmi, Patel, Gujjars and Marathas across north and western India states.
Hardik Patel had formed the `Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) irked by the OBCs in Gujarat benefiting from the 27 percent reservation surpassing the socially, economically and politically dominant Patidar community of Gujarat.
In October last year Hardik Patel was booked for insulting the the national flagin a case registered in Rajkot. He was also charged with sedition for allegedly inciting people for violence and killing police men. In October 2015 he was granted bail on the condition that he would stay out of the Gujarat for six months and out of Mehasana district for nine months. He later moved to Udaipur in Rajasthan