OBC row: Patels vow to boycott PM Modi's US visit

To mount pressure on government for reservation under OBC quota, the Patidar or Patel community members living in the US on Tuesday announced to "boycott" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's forthcoming visit there for delivering him a "strong message" on the issue.

More than 1,000 Patels held a meeting on Tuesday in Edison town of New Jersey in US to extend their support to protests being organised by their brethren in Ahmedabad, Sardar Patel Group leader Lalji Patel said here.

SPG disassociated itself from Hardik Patel-led Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti after their mega rally on August 25 in Ahmedabad and is running a parallel movement to press for the quota demand.

"Patels living in US have come forward and extended their support to our cause. Today, more than 1,000 Patels living in Edison held a meeting and extended support to us. They have announced to boycott PM Narendra Modi's upcoming visit in US," he said.

Lalji said Patels in US always participated with great enthusiasm during such visits of PM.

"But now, the Patel community in US wants to give a strong message to PM who has not taken any decision about (granting) reservation to Patels. Thus, we have decided to stay away from his programme in US," he said.

Lalji added that Patels will also stay away from any programme of Gujarat government as part of their ongoing stir.

The US-based Patels have also asked their community in Gujarat to stop paying taxes to government.

"Not just US, Patels will also stay away from any state government programme in Gujarat. Our US-based members also appealed to us to stop paying taxes to mount pressure on government. We will convey this message to our community to implement it in coming days," said Lalji.

Modi is supposed to visit California later this month.