Congress, PAAS reach agreement over reservation to Patels

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Congress and 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. Official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik tomorrow in Rajkot," said Bambhania, a key aide of Hardik Patel.

"I can say that we are in agreement with the Congress about their formula of granting reservation. We have not talked about giving tickets to PAAS. Hardik would announce tomorrow whether PAAS would support the Congress during the polls or not," he told reporters after the crucial meeting on the issue.

Hardik Patel did not attend the meeting.

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.

A week ago PAAS leaders and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal held a meeting over the issue, following which, Hardik Patel had said he was satisfied with the three options submitted by the Congress on how the party would grant reservation to Patels if voted to power.

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 to reservation in education and government jobs for his community.

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.