UP families offer their homes to Hardik Patel

In an expected turn of events, at least two families in Uttar Pradesh have offered their homes to Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who was asked to move out of Gujarat for six months as one of the conditions for his bail.

Mr Patel, who is likely to be released from jail in a day or two, will have to leave Gujarat within 48 hours.

One of the families that have offered its home to the young leader is from Gujarat but lives in the area near the Agrasen Mahajani College in Varanasi. Varanasi, interestingly, is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“He is a Gujarati and a young man and he has all our sympathies. Now that he has been asked to leave Gujarat, we are ready to welcome him into our home and he can stay here for as long as he wants,” said the head of the family.

The family did not wish to be identified for obvious political reasons.

“We are not political people and we are inviting Hardik as a son and not a political leader,” the family said.

Another family that is ready to welcome Hardik belongs to Allahabad and is not Gujarati. “We have seen the ascent of Hardik and we are impressed with his views. He has been in jail for waging a political battle and we are ready to keep him with us. In fact, we have already communicated our decision to Hardik’s friends who are known to my son,” the family member said.

Both the families are apparently not bothered about the trouble they may have to face from political outfits in UP.

“UP is not Gujarat and the situation will turn violent if they (politicians) try to do here what they did to him in Gujarat,” said the family in Varanasi.

Meanwhile, sources said that Hardik is likely to spend at least three months in UP as the Assembly elections approach. He is expected to interact with the Kurmi community in the state which is the second-largest chunk among the OBCs — almost 24 per cent of the OBC population.

The Kurmis are equivalent of Patidars in Gujarat.

The Patidar leader has also been offered support by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who is also trying to find a foothold in UP politics and Hardik’s support could give him a major boost. A JD (U) leader said, “Both, JD(U) and Hardik hacve a common enemy in the BJP and together we can upset their apple cart in eastern UP”.