Gujarat Congress, Hardik Patel led-PAAS reach agreement over reservation to Patels

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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Congress and the Hardik Patel led-Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on Sunday said that they have reached an agreement over the issue of granting reservation to Patels, if the Congress is voted to power in the state Assembly election.

"Earlier, we had asked the Congress to clarify how they would grant Patidars a constitutionally valid reservation. Today, we held a crucial meeting on that issue and finally reached a consensus on various options offered by the party to us. The official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik tomorrow in Rajkot," PAAS convener Dinesh Bambhania said after the meeting on the issue.

He is a key aide of Hardik Patel. Hardik was not present at the meeting.

I can say that we are in agreement with the Congress about their formula of granting reservation. We have not talked anything about giving tickets to PAAS. Hardik would announce tomorrow whether PAAS would support the Congress during the polls or not," he said, PTI reported.

The meeting with PAAS leaders was attended by Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and senior Congress leaders Siddharth Patel and Babubhai Mangukia.

Solanki claimed the meeting yielded a "positive outcome".

"The meeting was successful and yielded a positive outcome. We both agreed to implement this agreement in coming days," he said.

Hardik Patel had earlier set a condition that he would support the Congress in the Assembly polls, due next month, only if the party committed itself to allotting reservation in education and government jobs to his community.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Sunday released the first list of its 77 candidates for the elections with senior leaders from the state Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia getting tickets.

The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18. 

(With PTI inputs)