Patidar leader Naresh Patel ends the suspense, blow to Congress's hopes in Gujarat

DELHI: After maintaining suspense for nearly six months, influential Patidar leader Naresh Patel has announced not to enter active politics. This announcement made by the head of Shree Khodaldham Trust on Thursday has given a setback to the hopes of the Congress. The party was trying to get him in its side ahead of the assembly elections to be held in December. Several rounds of meetings were held with senior party leaders in Delhi to brainstorm on this issue.

Patel said youth and women are in favor of him entering active politics, but the community leaders are totally against it. Speaking to the media at Khodaldham in Rajkot district, Patel said, "Senior people of the Patidar community told me that if I join any political party, I will not be able to do justice to every community. Many projects related to education, health, agriculture of Khodaldham are still incomplete. My target is to complete these projects first.

Will give political training to youth

Naresh Patel further said, "Keeping these reasons in mind, I have decided not to enter politics at this time. You could say that I have permanently rejected the idea. But no one knows what will happen in the future. During this, Patel also announced the opening of Khodaldham Political Academy, in which training will be given to such youth of all communities who want to go into active politics.

Young people were in favor, elders were in opposition

It is worth noting that a committee of the trust has also conducted a survey to get views from the community. Referring to this survey, Patel said that around 80 per cent youth and 50 per cent women were in favor of entering politics. He said, "Around 100 per cent senior citizens gave the idea that I should stay away from politics. I agree with their concerns.” Patel also said that he would also ask his son Shivraj to stay away from politics. The Patidars constitute 11-12 per cent of the population in Gujarat and play a decisive role in many assembly constituencies.