'Gujarat govt must speed up withdrawal of quota cases against Patidars'

Prominent Patidar leader Naresh Patel on Sunday said the Gujarat government should speed up the process of withdrawal of cases lodged against the youths from his community in connection with the 2015 quota agitationPatel an influential social worker and chairman of Shree Khodaldham Trust said he will soon take a decision on which political party to joinHe was interacting with the media after meeting Congress leader Hardik Patel in Jetpur in Gujarats Rajkot districtPatel said while the BJP government is positively working towards withdrawal of cases against Patidar youths it needs to expedite the procedureRecently a court in Ahmedabad had allowed the governments plea for withdrawal of a rioting case against Hardik Patel and other accused from the communityPatel was talking about more than 200 cases lodged against Patidar community leaders after violence broke out during the 2015 quota stir in the stateCases against the youths are being withdrawn but slowly We request the government to speed up withdrawal of cases against the Patidars This is one of the points we discussed at the meeting with Hardik Patel and two other leaders of the agitation who accompanied him he saidCongress leader Hardik Patel said the government began the process of withdrawing cases against the Patidars after Naresh Patel met the Chief Minister requesting him for the sameSince Nareshbhai met the Chief Minister and discussed the issue with him the government has so far withdrawn 2225 cases so far But he has requested withdrawal of the remaining 244 cases at a faster pace Patel saidOn the suspense of him joining politics ahead of the Assembly elections likely to be held in December the Khodaldham Trust chairman said he will take a decision after one more round of meetings with more community leaders in another week or soHardik and his key aides during the reservation agitation Dinesh Bhambhaniya and Alpesh Kathiriya who took part in the meeting insisted on Patel taking a decision on joining politics at the earliestWe have requested him to take the decision on joining politics and which political party at the earliest and make an announcement regarding the same Hardik saidNaresh Patel has claimed in the past he has been approached by the Congress BJP and AAP but has sought the opinion of the public through a survey before taking the plungeHe is seen as a leader who can influence a significant number of Patidar voters a segment crucial for victory in the Assembly electionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever