Patidar leaders Reshma Patel, Varun Patel join BJP

As Gujarat gears up for elections, Patidar leaders Reshma Patel and Varun Patel announced their decision of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following their meeting with party Chief Amit Shah here on Saturday.

In a tit-for-tat situation that has arisen ahead of elections in poll-bound Gujarat, the two Patidar leaders will be contesting on behalf of the BJP.

Earlier in the day, another Patidar leader Hardik Patel had turned down the Congress' invitation to fight the Gujarat Assembly election jointly, saying the polls were not a BJP-Congress fight.

On the contrary, Thakor community and OBC Ekta Manch leader Alpesh Thakor confirmed that he would be joining the Congress Party, after he, accompanied by Ashok Gehlot and Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki met the party Vice President Rahul Gandhi at the latter's residence here.

The 14th legislative assembly election in Gujarat is to be held by the end of 2017 as the term of 13th assembly ends on January 22, 2018.

It could be noted that in the run up to the Gujarat election, the Congress promised to give Patidars 20 percent reservations under the "economically backward classes" quota.