AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday attacked Congress leaders following Hardik Patel’s resignation just months before the Assembly election. Owaisi alleged that even people within the Congress 'don't have any confidence' in the party. "Their (the Congress') people are leaving. Their (Gujarat) working president (Hardik Patel) has no confidence in the unofficial president. He left," Owaisi was quoted by news agency ANI. "Congress ruled Maharashtra for 15 years but now the party has slipped to third position (the party holds the fewest seats in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance in power). There used to be (late) Sheila Dikshit’s government but now Congress is nowhere to be seen in Delhi. The party lost in Kerala (in last year's assembly election) as well."
Hardik Patel, the poster boy of the Patidar agitation movement in Gujarat, was reportedly upset with the treatment being given to him and was mulling quitting the party, sources close to him had indicated earlier.
Patel shot to the limelight in 2015 at the helm of a quota agitation for his community - a movement that pitted him strongly against the BJP-led state government at the time. He joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but did not contest because of a conviction in a rioting and arson case. (With agency inputs)
