Hardik Patel joins BJP, says will be 'small soldier under PM Modi'

Patidar leader Hardik Patel joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday, days after quitting the Congress.

He was welcomed in the party by BJP Gujarat unit president C R Patil and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.

'Today, I am going to start a new chapter keeping in mind the interests of the nation, region, society and community. I will work as a small soldier in the development work of the nation being carried out under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,' Hardik tweeted earlier on Thursday.

Hardik, 28, who led the Patidar quota agitation in 2015, joined the Congress in 2019.

He resigned from that party on May 18, after claiming in a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that the party 'only played to the role of a roadblock' over certain key issues in the country and was "merely reduced to opposing everything'.