The Congress Party has been trying its best to keep the firebrand Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel in good humour and has supposedly agreed to accommodate an extra reservation for the “Patidar” community over and above the 49 per cent already granted as per the constitutional boundaries.

Speaking to reporters, Hardik Patel on Wednesday assured his supporters that the Congress has confirmed with him that the special reservation for the community will be mentioned in its manifesto for the coming Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017.

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“The Congress has agreed to provide reservation to the Patidar community,” Patel told reporters. Hardik said that the Congress has agreed to give Patidars reservations under Section 31 and provisions of Section 46 and that it would be at par with the limits set for OBCs.

Hardik also reiterated that PAAS will, wholeheartedly, now support the Congress in the elections to be held on 9 and 14 December.

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To reassure his supports regarding Congress’s intentions, Hardik said, “Nowhere in the Indian Constitution it is written that more than 50% reservation cannot be given. Congress people are not our cousins, but when they speak about our rights we have to listen to it. And the formula they have offered is plausible.”

With the issue of Patidar support now finally settled the Congress has taken a huge gamble in declaring the extra reservation, as under the Constitution and as per previous verdicts of the honourable Supreme Court it is not constitutional to provide any reservation beyond 49 per cent as already provided for legally.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to denounce the extra reservation commitment by the Congress by calling both the factions ‘fools’ to give such an undertaking the other accepting it. Senior BJP leader Nitin Patel is said, “Fools have made proposal and fools have accepted it.” Thus, encapsulating the BJP’s view of the understanding between the Congress and PAAS.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is BJP in-charge of the Gujarat Assembly election also targeted the PAAS-Congress bonhomie and said that the Congress Party is cheating the Patidars by promising them reservation whereas the Supreme Court has capped the limit at 50 per cent in education and in jobs.

He further added that the Congress is pursuing a policy of social division in the name of providing extra reservation.

In another development, an FIR has been filed against PAAS leader Hardik Patel and others including Dinesh Bhambaniya and Dinesh Patel for holding a rally in Mansa, in Gandhinagar district on 18 December 18  permission from the local administration and the police department.