Patel power: How one community can swing fine political balance in Gujarat

Decoding the Patel factor: The community, which accounts for nearly 14% of state's population, was once instrumental in the BJP's rise in Gujarat in the early 90s, after the Congress alienated them

A day after Hardik Patel, the Congress’ working president in Gujarat, quit the party just six months before the Assembly elections, without indicating his plans — whether he intended to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — the Congress brass in Ahmedabad, including central minder Raghu Sharma, state president Jagdish Thakor, and Opposition leader Sukhram Rathva, called on Naresh Patel at his farmhouse for an ‘important’ meeting. It was as though the Congress sought to recompense the loss of one Patel with another, except that Naresh is a political neophyte, although his father, Ravji