Ahmedabad : Celebrations continued on Saturday on Day Two of the release of Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel as his cavalcade toured Gujarat.
Hardik Patel is scheduled to remain out of Gujarat for six months starting from today in line with a condition imposed by the Gujarat High Court.
His lawyer filed an undertaking before the Sessions Court in Ahmedabad that Hardik Patel would live in Udaipur in neighboring Rajasthan.
The court allowed him regular bail last week in two sedition cases on the condition that he would be away from Gujarat for six months.
Hardik Patel started his day on Saturday by visiting his hometown Viramgam, where he was welcomed by Congress legislator Tejashree Patel. He then went to his school and finally to his home, where his family accorded him an emotional and traditional welcome, joined by his friends and supporters with heaps of rose petals.
He spent only 20-odd minutes with his parents and sister. Then the 23-year-old prayed at a shrine in his house, before heading for his next leg of a whistle-stop tour of Saurashtra.
It is in this region, like in North Gujarat and Surat, that the Patel community men and women kept the agitation afloat when Hardik Patel was in jail for the last nine months.
His supporters across Saurashtra gave him a traditional welcome amidst dances and chants of “Jai Sardar, Jai Patidar”.
At some places, community members organized blood donation camps to weigh him in blood. The warmth and excitement at every stop of his 2,100-km, two-day road show was similar to what is reserved for megastars or veteran politicians like Narendra Modi.
Hardik Patel reiterated that the agitation for Patidar job quotas would continue with new rigour and would remain apolitical.
Asked if he would join the Aam Aadmi Party, whose leader Ashutosh was in Ahmedabad on Friday night but could not meet him, Hardik Patel said: “It is a rumour.”
Hardik Patel was expected to continue his roadshow with the final stop in Rajkot around 3 a.m. where he is likely to be welcomed by his supporters despite prohibitory orders under Section 144 against gathering of four or more people at public places.
