Hardik meets Uddhav, will work together in Gujarat polls

However, the Patel quota leader and Shiv Sena both rejected reports that he will be the party's Gujarat CM candidate, reports Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.

Gujarat Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel, who was in Mumbai on Tuesday, paid a courtesy call on Matoshree, residence of the Thackerays.

His meeting Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray at their residence triggered speculation that the 23-year-old firebrand leader will be Shiv Sena’s chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat, elections to which will be held in November-December 2017.

However, both Patel and Shiv Sena rejected this possibility later.

In a WhatsApp message, Patel clarified that he will not join politics unless he succeeds in his mission to get OBC quota for Patels in Gujarat.

‘I have said this before and I am reiterating it here. Till the time I don’t succeed in getting reservations and justice for the Patidars, I will not join any political party or indulge in politicking,’ Patel said.

‘And at my age, there is no question of fighting an election (he is 23 and the minimum age required to contest assembly and Lok Sabha elections is 25). I am meeting people to canvass their support and not to do politics. I have my origins in a humble family. I have come to fight the battle of principles. I have come from a rural, farmer’s family. I don’t want to be ‘CM’; I want to be a ‘common man’,’ Patel added.

The closed-door meeting between the Shiv Sena president and Patel lasted for about 90 minutes, Maharashtra’s Industries minister Subhash Desai said.

Desai, who was instrumental in getting Patel to visit Matoshree, told Rediff.com, “Hardik insisted that he wants to grow his movement seeking OBC quotas for his community in Gujarat and, for that, he feels he must take other friends together.”

Desai said the Shiv Sena has not yet finalised its Gujarat assembly election strategy but was cryptic in his response when asked if Patel will be Shiv Sena’s chief ministerial candidate in the neighbouring state.

"We will go together; that is decided," Desai responded.

Desai scoffed at media reports that have ‘quoted’ Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as saying that Patel will be the Shiv Sena’s chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat.

"This is their (the media's) figment of imagination," Desai retorted.

Speaking about how the meeting was arranged between Thackeray and Patel, the Maharashtra minister said, “I was aware that Mr Hardik Patel was trying to meet Mr Uddhav Thackeray for quite a few days after he reached Gujarat (Hardik Patel was in Udaipur after July 15, 2016, when the Gujarat high court granted him bail but externed him from Gujarat for six months)."

"A friend of mine happens to be his friend. We (Hardik and Desai) started talking and most willingly he (Patel) decided to meet Uddhavji today and came to Mumbai," Desai said.

"The meeting went off in such a friendly way and there was great bonhomie as if we were old associates," he added.

Desai said the two leaders addressed the media jointly and he was not privy to their closed-door discussions.

"For quite some time I was not inside the chamber, but when I was there, I heard them discussing various national and state issues," he said.

Sticking to the Shiv Sena’s longstanding stand on caste-based reservations, “Uddhav told him that since Balasaheb’s (the late Bal Thackeray) time the Shiv Sena has insisted that reservations should be given on an economic basis. Whosoever is economically weaker the government should protect them," he said.

In another message, Patel said it was ‘nice to meet and speak to good people and to take that message to the masses’.

'To help get justice for Gujarat’s Patel community, I will seek support of every section of society and hence this courtesy call at Matoshree,' he said.

Praising the late Bal Thackeray, who was called the 'Hindu Hriday Samrat', Patel said, 'I bow before Balasaheb Thackeray. The Tiger still roars at Matoshree.'

'Sena has snapped ties with BJP once and for all'

When asked if the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party, who had been in an alliance in the state since 1985 but are now contesting the municipal elections independently, will come together after the results to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls like they did after the state elections in 2015, Desai said, “Not likely. Because, we have snapped our ties once and for all.”

“Soon you will see,” Desai again added cryptically in response to whether the Shiv Sena will quit the government in Maharashtra as well as at the Centre. “There also we will be separate,” Desai said without committing to any definite time frame.

“Our president will choose the right time for that split,” Desai said.

In fact, Desai said that he had openly declared from a public platform during the Shiv Sena rally in Mumbai on January 26 to Uddhav Thackeray and to Shiv Sainiks, that "our bags are packed and ready at our official residences. The moment the party decides, all our 12 ministers will be out of the government".

“The Shiv Sena will win 114 plus seats in the BMC elections and rule the corporation once again,” Desai signed off.