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Gujarat Polls: Congress Gives Three ‘Options’ For Quota To Patidars
Hardik Patel at a rally demanding OBC status for the Patidar community (SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)
Congress today gave three options to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) whose convener Hardik Patel has set a commitment to reservation as a pre-condition to support the party in the assembly polls slated for next month.
The options, which the PAAS kept undisclosed as of now, were proposed by senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal at the meeting here which began 11:30 pm last night and ended at about 2 am today. PAAS members said they would consult their leaders and legal experts before taking a decision.
The 13-member delegation was led by Patel's key aide Dinesh Bambhania. Patel did not participate in the meeting, held against the backdrop of a 7 November deadline given by him to the Congress to clear its stand on the quota issue.
Paridars, who form a chunk of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) vote bank, have been demanding reservation in government jobs and education in Gujarat.
According to Bambhania, Congress leaders presented various documents, Constitutional provisions and Supreme Court judgements while offering the three different options to Patels.
"We have been given three options by the Congress party on how to provide reservation to our community in educational institutions and government jobs. Congress kept in mind that we do not want to disturb the existing reservation system for OBCs, SCs and STs," Bambhania, also the convener of PAAS, said after the meeting.
He, however, did not divulge the details of the options.
"The options that have been given will be kept confidential till we discuss it with Hardik, social leaders of the community and legal experts. We will then put them before our community. If the community accepts them, we will convey it accordingly to the Congress party," Bambhania said.
Though Congress as well as PAAS remained tight-lipped about the options offered to the agitators, a senior leader claimed that Congress has found ways to provide legally valid reservation to them.
"It is not impossible to go beyond the 49 per cent cap. There are ways to do so, and the options are given after analysing several aspects as well as court judgements about the same. We have found something which will surprise everyone. Just wait and watch," claimed the leader who is know about the options.
Bambhania added that the next meeting with Congress will be held within the next 2-3 days and it will be the final one on this issue.
He said the reservation offer under the Economically Backward Class (EBC) was not discussed as it is not Constitutionally valid.
Bambhania was referring to the Gujarat Congress' earlier promise that a 20 per cent reservation under the EBC will be given to non-reserved communities including Patels if the party came to power.
Himmatsinh Gujjar, who was part of the Gujjar quota stir in Rajasthan and extended his community's support to PAAS for their fight for reservation, was also part of the PAAS team at the meeting. He told reporters that it is "not impossible" to grant reservation beyond the 49 per cent cap set by the Supreme Court.
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