PAAS supporters broke and vandalised chairs at a Patidar meeting attended by Amit Shah.
There was massive chaos at a programme attended by BJP President Amit Shah in Surat, Gujarat on Thursday. Hardik Patel's supporters went on a rampage damaging furniture and booing speakers including the BJP President. They also repeatedly chanted Hardik's name, who was the face of the Patidar movement that rocked Gujarat last year, and played a part in Anandiben Patel's resignation.
The event was organised by prominent Patel businessmen in Surat to felicitate BJP leaders of their community in the presence of party chief Amit Shah. BJP, which is struggling hard to regain the support of numerically strong Patidars in Gujarat after the community led by Hardik Patel launched the quota agitation, made this event a prestige issue. City-based prominent businessmen formed a group called 'Patidar Abhivadan Samiti', to honour the new state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel and the union ministers of Patel community
"This felicitation of Patidar leaders is for the community, is for the state and is for the nation," said full page advertisements given in vernacular newspapers across the state by the samiti, inviting Patel community members to come in large numbers for the programme.
Chaos prevailed outside the venue as well as in Mota Varraccha area, where Patidar community members from the locality hurled stones at the police. The function was wound up hastily within minutes with Patel leaders cutting short their speeches while Shah spoke only for four minutes amidst sloganeering.
The ruckus started even before the commencement of the function with the Patel quota agitators raised slogans like "Jai Sardar, Jai Patidar" and hailing Hardik, even as they damaged furniture at the venue and flung chairs around. Though the police detained several members of Patidar community, the protest continued. The slogan-shouting continued even when top BJP leaders like Shah and CM Rupani started speaking and forced them to shorten their speeches.
While Shah wound up within four minutes, Rupani spoke only for three minutes. The organisers abruptly declared the programme closed and the leaders were whisked away.
Arvind Kejriwal later tweeted saying,
The Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) had earlier made its intention clear that it is going to oppose the felicitation programme. But few would have guessed that things would go out of control there.
With PTI inputs
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