Ahmedabad: In a huge setback for Patidar agitation leader and recent entrant into Congress party Hardik Patel, the High Court of Gujarat has rejected his plea to suspend the court’s conviction thereby making him unqualified to contest the election.
The Public Prosecutor said, “The court has rejected the application of Hardik Patel. The court found that the applicant who has more than 17 FIR/complaints registered against him and seeing his conduct, his case cannot be considered as a rare or exceptional case for the court to stay his conviction.”
He added, “The stand of the state government was that a lawbreaker cannot be a lawmaker.”
Hardik’s lawyer Saleem M. Sayeed said that he will approach the Supreme Court against the High court judgment.
Hardik emerged as a leader of Patidar community after he took to streets to demand reservations for the community. He joined the Congress party on March 12 in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and leader of the Congress party in Parliament Mallikarjun Kharge.
