‘Opportunist, dishonest’ Hardik was in touch with BJP for last 6 years: Gujarat Cong leaders

News Network
May 18, 2022

Ahmedabad, May 18: With Hardik Patel quitting the Congress, the party leaders in Gujarat on Wednesday launched an attack on him, labelling him as "dishonest" and an "opportunist". They also accused him of being in touch with the ruling BJP for the last six years to ensure withdrawal of cases registered against him during the Patidar quota stir.

Patel, who had joined the Congress three years ago, on Wednesday resigned from the party, accusing its top leadership of behaving as if they hated Gujarat and Gujaratis. In his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, which comes ahead of this year’s state Assembly polls, Patel (28) said he was quitting as the Gujarat Congress working president and from the party's primary membership.

Targeting him over the move, senior Congress leader from Gujarat and party's national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil accused Patel of betraying his Patidar community for personal gains, while state Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma accused him of indulging in "back door dealings" with other parties and also claimed that he lacked discipline.

Talking to reporters, Sharma said, "Hardik indulged in politics of dishonesty and cheating. Congress made him a star campaigner during the Assembly polls to five states. He used to criticise BJP in his speeches. What has changed suddenly? He was in touch with BJP for the last six years to withdraw the cases against him." Although Patel was made the working president of Gujarat Congress, he wanted total control of the entire state party unit, Sharma alleged.

"Hardik was upset because there were reports that Patidar leader Naresh Patel is joining Congress. Hardik thought that Naresh Patel would take his space. I have observed that Hardik lacks the discipline to be in any political system. If you have your own personal agendas, you can't survive in any system," Sharma said.

"For some time, he was trying to put pressure on the party. He wanted us not to take Naresh Patel into the party and listen to him only. He used to try to remain close to Rahul Gandhi once to gain political ground. Now, he is criticising the leadership. It shows that he is an opportunist," he added. Talking to reporters in Delhi, Gohil said, "When a lower court rejected the Gujarat government's plea for the withdrawal of a rioting case against Hardik, the state government approached the higher court. This proved that Hardik was in touch with the BJP to withdraw cases against him."

Hardik indulged in some backdoor dealings with the BJP, Gohil said and predicted that Hardik would join the BJP in near future. "When you started the Patidar quota agitation, you had put forward several demands for the community. How many demands were fulfilled by the government? So for what sort of personal gains you are betraying your community and going there (BJP)," asked the Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.

Gohil also said that what Patel has written in his letter to Sonia Gandhi was dictated to him by the BJP. In his letter to the Congress president, Patel alleged that the Congress and its leadership, both at the central and state levels, have been merely reduced to opposing everything. "Be it the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, the implementation of GST, India wanted a solution to these issues for a long time and the Congress only played the role of a roadblock," he said.

Patel had gained prominence in 2015 after he led the agitation seeking reservation for the Patidar community in the state. After joining the party thee years ago, Patel was made the Gujarat Congress working president in July 2020.

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News Network
November 21,2025

Bantwal: A domestic dispute appears to have led to a violent confrontation in BC Road area, where the owner of a textile shop was allegedly attacked with a knife by his wife on Wednesday evening.

Krishna Kumar Somayaji, the owner of Somayaji Textiles, sustained serious injuries in the incident and was immediately taken to a hospital for treatment. He is currently receiving care in the intensive care unit and is reported to have survived the assault, according to police.

The Bantwal Town police have registered a case against Somayaji's wife, Jyothi KT, who has since been taken into custody.

Police stated that the complainant, Namita, an employee at the shop, reported the sequence of events. She stated that around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the suspect entered the shop, wearing a burqa and disguised as a customer, before attacking Somayaji with a knife. The employee then transported the injured owner to a local hospital via an autorickshaw.

Superintendent of Police Arun K confirmed that an ongoing domestic dispute between Somayaji and his wife reportedly preceded the attack. Police noted that Jyothi KT had previously visited the shop and issued threats.

Based on the complaint, Bantwal Town police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Indian Arms Act-1959. An investigation into the incident is currently underway.

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Agencies
November 22,2025

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New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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News Network
November 22,2025

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The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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