JD(U) Chief Nitish Kumar justifies Patels' demand; party leader Sharad Yadav disapproves

Taking a view divergent to that of his party colleague and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav on Wednesday disapproved of the agitation by the Patel and Patidar community in Gujarat for reservation under the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category saying that the Patels have been quite well off.

"The agitation by the Patel and Patidar caste men is unjustified and wrong as this community has been quite well off," he told reporters.

"They (Patels and Patidars) should not agitate for reservation at all," Yadav said.

The JD(U) president's remarks on the ongoing stir by the Patels assumes significance after the Chief Minister had backed the protesters' demand on Tuesday for inclusion in OBC category saying that their demand could be delayed, but not wished away by the government.

"I extend my good wishes to the people of Patel and Patidar castes agitating for the justified demand of inclusion in OBC category," Kumar had said. He had further said that the Patels' demand was justified as in other parts of the country similar kind of castes were getting reservation, but this benefit was denied to them in Gujarat.

The 22-year-old leader Hardik Patel, spearheading the agitation for OBC reservation to the Patels and Patidars in Gujarat, had during his speech at a mega rally in Ahmedabad yesterday taken Nitish Kumar's name as well as that of Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as members of the community.