Hardik Patel denies meeting Robert Vadra

Ahmedabad, December 13

Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel on Wednesday denied meeting Robert Vadra, the brother- in-law of Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi.

Patel’s former aide Dinesh Bambhania had yesterday claimed that the Patidar leader had a secret meeting with Vadra in Delhi.

Bambhania had also alleged that Patel was “misleading” the core committee members of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which is spearheading the quota agitation, regarding his meeting with Rahul Gandhi here in October.

Patel, as well as the Congress, had denied that such a meeting ever took place.

“Bambhania was a member of the PAAS core committee, which had met with leaders from both the BJP and the Congress. It was he, who had gone to Delhi with the other members of the committee. I was never part of that team. So, how can I meet Vadra?” Patel wondered.

“He (Bambhania) can even lie like (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi tomorrow and say that I had met (former Pakistani Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif. I did not meet Vadra and so, there is no question of making any secret deal with him,” he told reporters here.

“If he (Bambhania) says he has CCTV footage, he is free to release it to the media,” the Patidar leader said.

Questioning Patel’s open support to the Congress in the ongoing Gujarat Assembly polls, when the manifesto of the party was not clear about how would it give reservations to Patidars under the OBC quota, Bambhania had yesterday asked, “Under what secret understanding is Hardik appealing to the people to vote for the Congress?” — PTI