Around 50,000 people turned up to witness the roadshow of PAAS leader Hardik Patel in Surat city on Sunday. The road show covered a distance of 50km.
Hardik poured acid in the ears of the Patel community residing in this Southern Gujarat city and in subtle way, gave the directive to vote for Congress in a rally that he addressed at Yogi Chawk of city after the road show concluded. The rally was attended by around one lakh people as per the claim of Hardik Patel.
The road show went through six Assembly constituencies, falling in Surat where the Patel community from Saurashtra region dominates. Hardik asked, "Have you decided who to vote for?" and the crowd replied, "Congress". Hardik said, "If you have decided, I also stand by your decision and will vote accordingly."
The PAAS leader, however alerted the gathering that they should not change their minds when the time comes to vote. He said, "Please do not be confused when you stand in front of the EVM and change your mind. I understand that you may not love to vote another party but give them a chance once. If you do not like them, please bring BJP back to power after five years again."
"If we change our decision taken once, we should start believing that we do not have the DNA of Patels. Why should we forget the scenes when they killed 14 youths, the police beaten our ladies. These BJP people now should fear of our strength," said Hardik.
"There was a time when we believed in the BJP but that was the BJP of Keshubhai Patel and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We do not accept the BJP model of Amit Shah. They have resorted to hooliganism and that we should not accept this," he said.
Hardik also appealed to all ask acquintances in Saurashtra and ask them not to vote for the BJP. He also administered an oath to them on this.
Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani also held a road show and a rally. Addressing the public rally, Rupani said, "Everyone knows that Hardik is a betrayer and has been taking a party's side. In fact, he is an agent of the Congress and reservation agitation was just a private agenda of his to exploit the personal advantage out of that. People should not get driven by his talks."
