“Gabbar is back!” Posters proclaimed this last week, prior to the expected return to Gujarat of the 23-year-old Hardik Patel who was, in the midst of a prolonged pro-quota agitation, forced by a court order to cool his heels in picturesque Udaipur for six months.
While in Udaipur, he lived like a politician protected by security. He is set to return to Gujarat on Tuesday, as his supporters prepared to greet him all along the nearly 250-km-long road.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Kutch on January 20 to address a conference on tourism. This would be his seventh visit to Gujarat after August 2016. Although elected from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, he has been visiting his home state of Gujarat more frequently in an apparent bid to minimise the electoral impact of the many agitations the state government has been trying to grapple with since 2015. The elections to the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha are due this year.
The state government, which had barely heaved a sigh of relief following the conclusion of the mammoth, even if tame, ritual of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017, was, on Monday, bracing to meet the re-emerging political situation as the Patels’ outfit, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), made hectic preparations to take its pro-quota agitation, launched in July 2015, to new heights with renewed energy.
Reports from Rajasthan suggested that a cavalcade of some 300 vehicles would see Hardik off on his return journey up to Gujarat borders on Tuesday. Another rally of Patidars, comprising nearly 5,000 vehicles from across Gujarat, would receive Hardik in the border town of Ratanpur. PASS would organise a roadshow from Ratanpur to Himatnagar.
As part of his return journey, Hardik would also address a ‘Hunkar Rally’ at Himatnagar. More than a lakh Patidars are expected to be present there.
Interestingly, according to PAAS members, representatives from various communities, including Brahmins, Thakors, tribals and Muslims, would also be present to greet Hardik in Gujarat.
To strengthen the Patidar agitation, the community leaders have been busy holding ‘ Khatla baithaks ’ (charpoy meetings) across the state since the last week.