Not joining AAP, BJP circulating such 'baseless reports' to hide its failure during COVID-19 crisis: Gujarat Congress leader Hardik Patel

BJP hit back at Patel and said that they fight elections on the agenda of development and that is why people elect them.

File Photo (Twitter/@HardikPatel_)

New Delhi: Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel on Monday (June 14, 2021) refuted the reports claiming that he is going to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is behind such 'baseless reports'. He said that the incumbent state government is circulating such 'false reports' to hide its failure during the COVID-19 crisis in Gujarat.

"I am surprised at the reports coming in from various media quarters that I am going to join the AAP and become their face for the next year's Assembly election in Gujarat. Such claims are baseless. Such fake reports are being planted in the media with malicious intent at the behest of the BJP," Hardik Patel tweeted in Hindi. 

"These are being circulated to create confusion among Congress supporters and the Patidar community. The BJP is circulating such baseless reports in order to hide its failure during the COVID-19 crisis in Gujarat," he added. 

विभिन्न मीडिया प्लेटफॉर्म्स में मेरे आम आदमी पार्टी में शामिल होने और आने वाले विधानसभा चुनाव में उनका चेहरा बनने की खबरें आने से अचंभित हूँ। ये खबरें निराधार और फर्जी है एवं भाजपा द्वारा कांग्रेस कार्यकर्ताओं और विभिन्न समाज में भ्रम फैलाने के उद्देश्य से प्लांट कराई गई हैं। — Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) June 14, 2021

In a statement, he also said that he is the youngest working president ever of the Gujarat Congress and he joined the party 'with the sole aim of removing the anti-farmer, anti-worker and anti-Patidar BJP government'. 

Patel stated that he will try his best as the opposition party's state working president to see that Congress forms a government in Gujarat in 2022. 

However, Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas hit back at Patel and said that his allegations are far from the truth. Vyas said that the saffron party fights elections on the agenda of development and that is why people elect them.

"Hardik Patel is having his own agenda and we are not concerned about it," he said.

The reports of Patel joining AAP had emerged in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Gujarat on Monday. During the visit, Kejriwal also announced that the AAP will fight on all the seats in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly legislative polls.

(With agency inputs)