Ahmedabad: With Gujarat Assembly elections drawing near, political parties have started targeting each other. Hardik Patel, chief of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), found himself at the receiving end this time as a sleaze video has gone viral on social media claiming the man engaging in intimate moments with a woman is none other than the leader himself. It should be mentioned here that Patel and Congress likely to strike a deal ahead of the Assembly polls. Despite the allegations, authenticity of the identity of the persons seen in the clip cannot be independently verified.
But fearing loss of face and eventually votes, Hardik Patel has sought to defend himself and tweeted: “Dirty politics has begun now. It will not make any difference to me by defaming me. But the image of the Gujarati women is being tarnished.”
On November 10, the Patidar quota agitation leader had expressed the apprehension that the BJP might try to defame him with a sex CD in order to make electoral gains. “The BJP has prepared a doctored sex CD to defame me and it will be released just before the election. What else can one expect from the BJP? So just wait, watch and enjoy,” Hardik said. Asked how he learnt about the CD, Hardik said, “This is typical of the BJP.”
It is not for the first time that attempts have been made to tarnish Hardik Patel’s image. In 2015, a sex CD was released soon after he had launched the agitation to demand quota in government jobs for the Patel-Patidars. It was not clear whether the person seen in the video was Hardik. However, the clip labelled him as such. The Patidar leader did not refute or challenge the video clip even then.
Hardik Patel had instantly rose to fame on the national scale by holding an agitation in Ahmedabad on August 25, 2015 under PAAS’ banner to demand reservation for Patels in the OBC category. The rally turned violent by the time it ended, killing nine people and damaging property worth crores, forcing the Gujarat government to summon eight columns of Army.
